


Side-Stories, Sky High AU

by Aufigir1, Judaiandjohan, Okami_no_fude, pulveremcomedesligulas, ShadowMyst, xcyfiawnderx



Series: We fucked up and made a super hero au [16]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: (yes i was an asshole), F/M, Giving a bit of background to the characters, It's gonna be a long thing, Other, The side stories that don't directly affect the main directly, This is hella late, We all did nano with prompts Cy picked out, gonna be all over the timeline with the first round, starting with pre-story stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 11:36:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 24,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21968689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aufigir1/pseuds/Aufigir1, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Judaiandjohan/pseuds/Judaiandjohan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okami_no_fude/pseuds/Okami_no_fude, https://archiveofourown.org/users/pulveremcomedesligulas/pseuds/pulveremcomedesligulas, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowMyst/pseuds/ShadowMyst, https://archiveofourown.org/users/xcyfiawnderx/pseuds/xcyfiawnderx
Summary: A collection of one shot prompts made for NaNo spanning the timeline, before, during, and after the story. Posted in no particular order for the Pre-story shenanigans!
Relationships: Link/Malon (Legend of Zelda)
Series: We fucked up and made a super hero au [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1460854
Comments: 50
Kudos: 176





	1. A Proposal? (Dazzling)

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt 1: Dazzling
> 
> Time has something planned, Malon has an inkling...
> 
> Written by Cy

"Link, where are we going?"

"You'll see when we get there Malon, I promise. It's a secret for now though." Link was leading Malon by hand, slowly so she didn't trip over the few exposed roots that were on the trail. He'd blindfolded her when they left her family ranch so she didn't peek.

A huff left her lips and she clicked her tongue at him playfully and squeezed his fingers, trusting the older man to guide her. They had been walking for several minutes before the faint sound of water lapping against stone or a shore reached her ears, making them perk up. She knew they were not anywhere near Castletown, but the waves weren't large enough to be Lake Hylia, nor was the distance they had driven. There were far too many little lakes and ponds dotting the countryside for her to immediately identify simply by ear. 

For now she pouted, drawing a laugh from her boyfriend who had apparently looked back to her just in time to see it. "It's not fair that  _ you _ can see where we are going!"

"That's the point of a secret Mal, you will find out soon enough. We're almost there, I'm positive you'll be glad that I didn't let you see where we are." Malon could hear the smile in his words and she simply sighed with a smile of her own. 

“It better be mister. Dragging a helpless farm girl like me out to the middle of nowhere… What would my father say?” she teased.

There was a soft amused hum from the male and she tilted his head as he didn’t respond further.  _ Now _ her interest was definitely piqued.

Her mind was darting back and forth about  _ why  _ wouldn’t have answered but she was only coming to one conclusion. But it was too soon for that right? They’ve only been dating for a little over 2 years. Was that even enough  _ time _ to get to know each other well enough? She knew it was in her heart, but logic was also yelling that it could simply be something like a promise for the future, he was a Hero after all and all sorts of things could happen.  _ Right? _

There was  _ no way _ her father would have agreed to anyone even trying anyway. He was  _ ridiculously  _ overprotective of her since she was an only child and his little princess. Talon Riddari was  _ very _ strict towards any boy she’d ever brought home, Link was the  _ first _ he’d ever accepted without hazing him.  Her mother saw to that when she tossed him out into the woods for three hours from the ranch a few weeks ago.

She was caught in a whirlwind of thoughts that when Link stopped and spoke up, she jumped in surprise. 

“Here we are. Stand here and I’ll remove the blind fold. I still want you to keep your eyes shut for a moment longer though okay?” Malon tilted her head slightly in quiet question and Link huffed a soft laugh. “I have one more thing to grab.”

“Alright, but I’m  _ only _ giving you a minute Fairy Boy.” Malon made sure to close her eyes behind the blindfold and waited as she felt the fabric be removed from her face. A rustle of fabric and what could only be branches off to her left signaled where Link had gone off to and she struggled to not open her eyes and look around.

It was only a moment or two before Link returned and stood behind her. “Go ahead and open your eyes.”

She did and a gasp escaped her as she took in the set up in front of her. A blanket or thick rug was laid out on the ground in front of a dock with a low table and two stools set up on the end of it, putting them a few dozen feet out over the water. Small lanterns were set up on the posts supporting the dock, illuminating the lake water beneath them. Two covered plates were on the table and she turned around to face Link,  _ instantly knowing and realizing what was happening.  _

He’d taken the time she was staring at the set up to go down on one knee a box held in one hand while the other was ready to open it. There was a small nervous, but hopeful smile on his face as he looked up at her face. “Malon, we’ve been together for two years, and have known each other for almost four. I can’t think of anyone else in my life that has stuck by me through my ups and downs like you have, and dealt with the stupidity that I bring around by being me….”

That had a bubble of laughter escaping Malon’s mouth from where she had covered it with one hand, a watery smile behind it and tears forming in her eyes. 

“I would be honored if you said yes to what I’m about to ask. I received your parents’ blessings for this and I… Would you be willing to marry me Malon Riddari?” He pulled open the box and inside it was the  _ gaudiest _ ring she’d ever seen. A thick gold band, with a red heart shaped stone (a ruby? A red sapphire maybe?) the size of her thumbnail surrounded by at least three dozen tiny diamonds, it was both ugly and beautiful. But  _ that _ was too much for a simple farm-girl like her. 

She made a show of debating the question, watching Link’s nervousness grow a bit to the point he was jittering his leg visibly. A small laugh broke free again and she nodded, she held out a hand though, index finger pointing at him. “Of course I’ll marry you Link Forrester, but that had better not be the ring you plan on giving me. That is  _ far too much _ . I’d blind someone just wearing it during the day Fairy Boy.”

The look of relief on Links face was well worth the dazzling smile he gave her as he flipped the box shut and with one hand he reached into a pocket to pull out a far more modest ring. A thin rose gold band with a  _ much  _ smaller and simple oval cut diamond inlaid within it. “Wanted to see how you’d react to it, but…”

She held out the proper hand and let him slip the ring on her finger, then without warning, Malon lunged at him, hugging him tightly before bringing her hands up to cup the sides of his face, giving him a firm and deep happy kiss. He returned it and then nudged her gently. “We do have a delicious meal to eat too.”

“I saw, did you make it?”

“Nah, your mother did.”

“Good,  _ you would have burnt it. _ ”

“I’m not  _ that _ bad Mal…”

“...”

“Okay, yes I  _ am _ that bad. Your mother threatened me if I tried to cook it. I just helped with the small things.”

“Good. I’m hungry.”

“I hope so. Mal?”

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

The dazzling smile that Malon gave Link in return was one that neither of them would ever forget, especially as unknown at the edge of the treeline was Sheik, a camera in hand, having caught the whole thing. Talon and Lucina as well as Damien and Helena would find this absolutely adorable when she showed them. For now Sheik left them to their privacy and fled.


	2. A School Project

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately, even having superpowers doesn't exempt one from doing homework.  
> Now if only Wild could stop fooling around and actually get something done.

“Man these things are weird.”

Flora sighed as Wild sat down on the floor, prodding at the helms she had placed there.

“Wild, do you think you could star–”

“I mean, look at this one.” Wild cut her off, lifting up a helm vaguely resembling an elephant’s head. “It’s got a tiny trunk on it. How can anyone take you seriously when you have this hanging in front of your face?”

Flora resisted the urge to reach over and snatch the helm out of his hands, if only for fear of accidentally breaking it. It may have only been a replica, but it was still incredibly valuable and she still did not want to have to explain to her father how such a prized artifact had been damaged. Especially if he found out that Wild might have been even slightly involved.

“It doesn’t matter how weird they may look. Those helms are valuable artifacts and – “

“– Are relevant to the Champions, are a big part of history, I know, I know. I’ve heard all about this too you know.”

Flora shot Wild a glare as he cut her off again, silently debating whether it was worth it to throw a pillow at him.

The two of them were spending the weekend at the Forrester’s house, working on a school assignment. Flora had hoped that confining themselves to Wild’s room would allow them to work in peace without being distracted by the rest of the household. However, it seemed she had underestimated Wild’s ability to focus on the work.

Flora opened her mouth, ready to remind Wild of the research they were supposed to be doing, before she was cut off yet again, this time by the door opening.

“Hey, you guys going alright in here?” It was Twilight. The older Forrester stepped into the room, glancing curiously at the four helms and all the books Flora had spread across the bed. Legend followed him in, moving over to join Wild on the floor.

Flora smiled at Twilight as he settled himself against the opposite wall. “Well we’d be better if a certain  _ someone  _ could focus on the actual work for a few minutes, but we’ve still managed to get a decent start.”

Twilight laughed as Wild shot her an affronted look. “Hey, I am focusing, thank you very much. I’ll have you know I’m actually studying the design of these helms.”

Legend barked out a laugh at that. “Yeah sure you are. And what exactly have you learned so far?”

Wild grinned and leaned forward, time slowing around him. Moving slowly to avoid pulling his brother into the influence of his powers, Wild carefully placed the helm he was holding on Legend’s head. After checking to ensure it was sitting comfortably Wild quickly moved himself further away from Legend and settled down again to watch as time resumed at its normal pace.

Upon suddenly finding himself in the dark with a strange object covering his head, Legend startled violently and, with a yell, found himself falling backwards. Twilight and Flora both stared in shock before joining Wild in his uproarious laughter.

Legend quickly pulled the helm from his head, shooting his brother a glare as he attempted to speak past his laughter. “Yeah, I learned that you look absolutely ridiculous as an elephant.”

Unable to contain himself, Wild collapsed backwards onto the floor. Clutching his stomach as he laughed even harder. 

Seeing the look on Legend’s face, Twilight quickly moved to intercept him before he could launch himself across the room to tackle their younger brother. “That’s probably not the best idea right now Legend. Besides,” Twilight’s grin became mischievous. “It'll be much more fun to get him back later. Right when he’s least expecting it.”

A matching grin quickly formed on Legend’s face as Wild shot back up, staring at Twilight in betrayal.

“Twi! How could you?” Wild brought an arm up to cover his eyes, a vain attempt to hide his non-existent tears. “I can’t believe it. Betrayed. By my beloved brother. After everything we’ve been through together. Have all these years together meant nothing to you?”

Twilight snorted at Wild’s dramatics, amusement clear on his face. “Of course not. But just because I love you, doesn’t mean I don’t want to kill you for all the heart attacks you’ve given me from pulling crazy stunts over the years. This is just payback.”

Wild stared for a moment before sticking his tongue out at his brothers. He turned away from them and picked up a nearby book, opening it to a random page and pretending to become absorbed in its contents.

Flora shook her head at the boy’s antics, a fond smile on her face. She wondered briefly if this is what it would have been like if she had siblings of her own. She dismissed the thought as she turned back to listen to Twilight.

“So what exactly is this assignment you guys are doing anyway?”

Thankful that the topic had turned to their assignment, Flora passed Twilight the sheet they had been provided by their teacher.

“It’s for our history class. We are supposed to be researching important, historical figures and writing an in depth report on them and their achievements.”

Twilight quickly glanced over the assignment sheet, nodding to Flora’s explanation as a look of recognition passed over his face. “Oh yeah I remember this one. Midna and I did ours on one of Hyrule’s old kings. It was actually really interesting to learn about the things he did during his rule.”

He looked up from the sheet and nodded towards the helms sitting on the floor. “I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that you guys are doing yours on the ‘Divine Champions’ then?”

Wild put his book aside in exchange for the helm meant to resemble a lizard head. “Yeah, Flora was telling me some of the stuff she’d read about them and it all seems really interesting. So we decided to give it a go.”

Legend frowned slightly at that, “But do you guys think you’ll be able to find enough information on them to write the report? I mean, a lot of information on the champions has been lost after all these years. No one even knows who they actually were.”

“I know, Professor Kaepora expressed similar concerns but I believe we’ll be able to pull through. My family's library has several books that mention the champions and I remember being told about some records referencing them from the king of that time”

Twilight smiled, “Well it sounds like you guys have this all figured out then. Although, if you needed, Hyrule’s family might have something that you could use as well. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of his ancestors had met the champions.”

Flora paused, thinking over Twilight’s words. “That’s a good point. Hyrule’s family has always been very well known and powerful. They would probably have had plenty of opportunities to meet and get to know the champions. I’ll have to ask hi– Wild! Stop that!”

All eyes shot over to Wild as he quickly straightened up, eyes wide.

“What? I wasn’t breaking it or anything.”

His brothers were quick to notice what they were talking about. While the three of them had been talking, Wild had once again gotten distracted by the helm in his hands, and had discovered the mechanism that would allow the six panels on the front of the helm to open.

Flora frowned at Wild, “Maybe not yet, but you might if you keep triggering the opening mechanism like that. You’re not supposed to constantly open and close it like that. No matter how careful you’re being”

A small pout made its way to Wild’s face at Flora’s words, but he obediently closed the panels and removed his finger from the trigger. “Fine, I’ll stop. But why does the front of the helm open like that? None of the others do it.”

“I don’t know Wild,” Flora sighed. “Maybe if you started doing some research you’ll find out.”

She turned back to Wild’s brothers at the sound of Legend snickering. “Well looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you,” He said with a small smirk. “Is this why you’re working so hard on it already? To give yourself time to get him on track?”

“It may as well be,” Flora replied, forcing herself to ignore how Wild had once again started fiddling with the helm. “Though really I actually planned this in preparation for Thursday.”

Twilight straightened up, understanding shining in his eyes. “Of course, how could I forget. That insane combination of both his birthday and Halloween. All in one day.”

“Oh yeah,” Legend smiled, brushing off Wild’s attempts to catch his attention. “I assume he told you about his candy gathering plans then.”

“Yes he did. Which is why I plan to get as much of this assignment done as possible  _ before _ he manages to put himself in a sugar coma from all the junk he’ll be eating for the next week.”

The two brothers laughed at that. “Well I wish you luck with that Flora,” Twilight said. “Unless it involves cooking, Wild has a really bad habit of getting distracted by–”

“GUYS!”

Twilight, Legend and Flora finally turned to look at Wild. The teenager was practically bouncing in his seat, clearly eager to tell them something, and their eyes were immediately drawn to the helm that was now securely fastened on Wild’s head.

“Really Wild.” Twilight sighed, running a hand down his face. “All you’re doing is proving my point right now.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Wild responded. He was almost visibly shaking with excitement. “You guys need to see this, it’s really cool.”

Legend groaned. “You were just talking about how those things were ridiculous.”

Wild shook his head, “No, I said that  _ you  _ were ridiculous. But this is different. Way better than you as an elephant.”

Flora found herself sighing once again. Sometimes she still didn’t understand this boy. “Alright Wild, what is it? What's so important?”

Wild was silent for a moment, making sure he had their full attention. “Ok, I know you said to stop playing with it and i was going to, but then I was thinking about it and it just hit me.”

“Are you sure something didn’t actually hit you?” Legend snarked.

“Shhh, stop interrupting me. Just guys, look!” With that Wild once again triggered the mechanism to open the front of the helm. The panels moved outwards, revealing Wild’s wide eyes and excited smile. He spread his hands out to either side with a flourish, as he grinned at the three of them, awaiting their reactions.

“I’mma flower!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was written as a Christmas gift for the wonderful and amazing people behind this au and is actually the first story I've ever written.  
> Part of the inspiration for this was a piece of art created by Jojo56830 on Tumblr, who is also the creator of Linked Universe so be sure to go check out her stuff.


	3. Knives and low blows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time realizes something about his worst enemy, he's reluctant to continue the fight but he's not really given a choice... Majora loves her knives
> 
> Day 5: Knife Pre-story 
> 
> Written by Cy

Link didn’t want to be fighting against Majora right now. Not after what he had swiftly discovered during one of the Resets when he had shifted into his wolf form. He’d recognized instantly what was rolling off of her scent and his hackles had raised slightly before she struck a blow, catching him off guard and he Reset.

_ She was pregnant. _ Majora was fighting while she was  _ pregnant _ and ran a very high risk of losing the baby she was carrying. But she was making it difficult to not retaliate, flinging knives at him, and popping in and out of the time stream rapidly. 

Her laughter was eerie and knowing because she started becoming more precise with each blow. It was getting harder and harder to dodge her knives and keep himself from striking her at the same time. His instincts were warring with each other, to fight back against the obvious threat or to protect her from herself. 

“Why aren’t you fighting back Fierce Deity? Is something  _ wrong~ _ ?” She taunted as another razor sharp blade barely nicked the side of his face. “This is  _ so _ unlike you... “

Link grit his teeth tightly and jumped backwards as another knife struck the ground where his left foot had been only a split second before, silently begging for Sheik to hurry up with the trap they had planned out. That action repeated a few more times, the time around him flexing and making him flinch whenever she did it. 

“I know what you’re doing Majora!” He finally snapped at her, which made her pause and tilt her head slightly.

“Oh? What’s that then?” 

He would have to get his jaw checked out for possible cracks in the bone with how hard he was clenching his jaw. “You  _ want _ me to strike you. You want me to hit you, to do anything to you. What I can’t figure out is  _ why _ you want me to.”

Majora had been grinning as soon as he started talking and when he was done, she let her head drop back as laughter started to bubble free. The hand holding a knife was brought up to rest the back of it against her chin as she laughed, the other dropping down to rest against her middle. “Why?  _ Why _ ? I’m trying to pass some time in the moving world. Even I can only stop time for so long before I need to let it go on. This? This is simply for my amusement.”

That had Link a little worried because he didn’t know what her end goal for this was. A distraction maybe? Why would she simply want to stop time for long periods? What was she trying to accomplish?

A laugh broke him out of his thoughts and he jerked backwards with a gasp, a blade slicing through the air close enough to draw a thin line of blood across the bridge of his nose. There was a spike of power shifting and he barely had a chance to react as Majora’s arm shot forward into his personal space, knife glinting in the light of the sun. He  _ barely  _ caught woman’s wrist to redirect it aside and pull her around, attempting to pin that arm behind her back. 

She reacted like an eel, squirming and twisting around in a way that should have been impossible for someone in her condition, but she managed it anyway. A cheap shot was made and Link saw stars as he let go of her to curl over his abused organ. No blade took advantage of his incapacitated form and when he lifted his head up, tears creeping at the edges of his vision, blurring his sight a bit, Majora was gone.

That was how Sheik found him.


	4. Reality Strikes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time has to remind Wild that things are not all sunshine and rainbows for their family. It has to be done, but at least he listens when faced with reality.
> 
> Day 13: Lecture - Pre-story
> 
> Written by Cy

This was the  _ third _ time this month that Link ‘Time’ Forrester Sr. had been called to the police station because of his youngest son’s antics.  _ The third fucking time _ .

It was starting to grate on his nerves because the Council was starting to chomp at the bit because to them it appeared that he  _ wasn’t _ keeping his end of the contract. One in particular was making comments about it every time he went to one of the meetings to report as he had been ordered to. She was getting persistent about having custody taken from him and his wife, to be given to the council and whatever goon they had ready.

No, he wasn’t going to let them even  _ try _ to take his son. He had to nip this in the bud before it became any more out of hand than it already was. Time loved the fact his youngest was such a free spirit, but he  _ desperately _ needed to cement into Wild’s head that he had to dial back a few notches.

Entering the station itself was such a frequent thing that the secretary at the front waved him on through without even checking for his ID  against protocol really  but he was here at least twice a month as it was. “He’s waiting for you in the waiting area. Driving poor Officer Mido up the wall again.”

“Thank you Trasyi… I’m so sorry about this.” Time released an exasperated sigh as he started towards the door as she buzzed it open. 

“Don’t be, this is fun. It always seems to be him who catches those two.” There was a large grin on her face before she turned back to her screen. “Paperwork is already drawn up, usual song and dance, just sign them when you come back out.”

“Right, will I be signing for Hyrule too?”

“Sadly no, his mother is coming to pick him up this time. Chief is hoping that will get him to listen better.” 

Time rolled his eye with another sigh and opened the door. “Alright. Thanks again.” 

He was buzzed through a second door by a guard and when he entered the processing and waiting area he did his best to muster up the frown that should still be on his face. Wild and Hyrule were both playing rock-paper-scissors with an officer who had his back to Time, obviously trying to keep the pair from causing their usual brand of chaos.

“Hah! Scissors beat paper kids.”

“But I had rock not paper!” Hyrule’s eyes were narrowed on the officer, his lips pursed slightly in annoyance.

“Then it’s a three-way loss! All of us had one of the different choices. Again please Officer Mido!” Wild held up his hands, getting his fingers ready for the action before his son looked up at him and his face split into a wide grin. “Dad!”

Officer Mido turned his head at the exclamation and straightened up to his feet. “Well boys, it looks like your parents are arriving finally.”

“Hyrule, your mother has to pick you up this time.” At the dejected look on the boy’s face Time smiled faintly before he looked to his own son who at least had the decency to look sheepish. “We can stay until they get here. But, when we leave Wild’s grounded for a week. Meaning no visits.”

“Aww, but  _ dad _ -”

“No buts Wild. I need to talk to you on the way home about something important anyway.” His tone shifted to firm, but he wasn’t mad, not really. Time looked up to Mido who rolled his own eyes in exasperation and then turned to go over to his desk. “Thank you Mido, sorry about all of this.”

“Nah, it’s no big deal. They’re just kids being kids. Just in the wrong kind of places to be jumping around like monkeys. I’ll leave them to you sir. Have a good day! Behave for your parents boys.”

The pair of 12 year olds had their arms crossed over their chests, childish pouts on their faces. Both of them did look up at the dismissal from their favorite officer and said in almost perfect unison, “Bye Officer Mido!”

The only noise between the three waiting for Hyrule’s mother to arrive was the background noise of the officers and errand runners moving around behind them. Good, they both knew they were in trouble this time.  _ Really though? Jumping from building to building and over all sorts of things and over  _ **_joggers_ ** _ of all things?! _

Wild didn’t meet his gaze as he watched his son’s face, Hyrule too. Both of them were sitting shoulder to shoulder, fidgeting in their seats as they waited. It thankfully wasn’t long for the wait and Hyrule’s mother came in, a mirrored look on her own face to match his own. Time watched her muster up a small amount of anger, just enough to give her voice a change in tone and he had to fight back a smile of his own.

“Link Nyroc Octavius Harkinian!” 

Mentioned pre-teen shrunk down in his chair before looking up through his bangs, shoulders up by his ears and a sheepish smile on his face. “Y-Yes mum?”

The anger melted off of her shoulders and face, leaving her to shake her head and make a come-hither gesture. “You’re in trouble and you know you are. We’ll talk on the way home, but  _ you _ young man, are  _ grounded _ for two weeks.”

Hyrule’s eyes were wide, comically so and Time shifted to cough behind a hand, disguising a laugh as Wild turned wide eyes on him in return, as if begging to not be separated from his best friend longer than necessary. The brunet spluttered as he scrambled up to his feet, squeaking out as he bolted towards her, lest she add  _ more _ time to his grounding. “B-But mum! We were just having fun!”

“I don’t care mister. You were told after the last time that you would be grounded if I had to come pick you up  _ again _ from the station. Now…” She sighed and looked up to Time who just gave her an equally amused/exasperated look. “Say good bye to Wild. You’ll see him at school, don’t be dramatic… _ Link.” _

Wild and Hyrule collided in a tight hug before they reluctantly pulled away from one another. Both boys sniffled and went back to their parents’ sides, Hyrule taking his mothers hand, and Time putting an arm around Wild’s shoulders.

“Bye ‘Rule…”

“Bye Wild…”

When Hyrule and his mother were out of the room, gone for a few moments, Time guided Wild though the door and filled out the few lines of paperwork before leading the preteen to the car. “You can sit up front today. I want to talk to you about something anyway.”

Wild didn’t say anything, just quietly got into the front seat and buckled himself in, watching his lap, fingers fidgeting as Time went to the other side to get in. He waited to say anything until after they had left the parking lot and past the first stoplight. A turn of his head to look at Wild showed that the other was visibly upset. 

“You know why you’re grounded right?” He murmured softly, turning the wheel once the light turned green and he reached the end of the lane.

“Yea dad…” was the equally soft reply.

“Wild, there is another reason why you’re grounded too. I want and  _ need _ you to listen to me alright?”

There was a soft shuffle of fabric and he made a quick turn of his head to look at his son who was watching him. He returned his eye to the road and started speaking again, going into a smaller and kinder version of his ‘lecture mode’ as Sheik lovingly called it. “I know you remember when I brought you home. But do you remember what I was told I had to do to be able to keep you with us? You’ll have to give me a yes or a no, there’s a lot of traffic kiddo.”

“Yes dad, I remember…”

He took in a deep breath as he changed lanes, “I’m glad you do, but I am going to tell you this, it’s  _ very _ important. Not just to me and your mother and brother, but also to  _ you _ . You and Hyrule need to play in places where neither of you will have a chance for hurting a bystander or damaging property on accident. The Council is  _ always _ watching us, they are trying their hardest to take you away from our family because to them you are a danger. You’re not, I know you’re not and so do your friends and the rest of our family. But they see you as a threat to the people at large.”

A quiet sniffle was heard as his ear flicked. He frowned slightly, brow creasing with his own slight upset. “I don’t want to scare you with this, but kiddo, they are getting  _ very _ upset that you keep being taken to the station. They are waiting for you to actually hurt someone to rip you away from us, from your  _ home _ . None of them were even happy that I fought for you like I did, but I’m glad that I did.”

He stopped for a few moments, the frown on his face increasing as he listened to Wild’s soft snuffles, obviously muffled into his arm or hand. At the next stoplight ahead he looked around to see if there was a good spot to pull over and park for a few minutes. Malon wouldn’t mind, she knew what he was planning on doing and dinner wasn’t for a few hours.

Turning off the road into a convenient store lot he put the car in park and turned to face his son once he unbuckled his seatbelt. “Come here Wild…”

Wild scrambled for his seatbelt and practically threw himself over the center console against his fathers chest as he started crying harder. The angle was awkward to hold the preteen tightly, but Time pushed that thought aside as he ran a hand up and down the smaller back. “I’m not mad at you, never could be for something as dorky and fun as what you two were doing, but I am  _ scared _ for you.”

Wild burrowed himself against his fathers chest, fingers clinging tightly to his shirt as he trembled and hiccuped his sobs free. “D-Don’t want th-them to take m-me…”

“I know… Shhh… I know you don’t and I don’t want them to either. Easy kiddo… easy. You’re safe with me.” His free hand slid up to gently run through Wild’s long hair, intent on soothing the younger. He hated seeing his kids cry, he hated seeing  _ anyone  _ he loved and cared about cry actually. 

It was a little while before Wild’s tears stopped and he stilled with only the occasional sniffle. Both of them stayed quiet for a few moments longer, Time watching the passing traffic until he felt Wild move. “Do you feel better?”

“Yea dad… I… W-We’ll stop doing it in town…” Wild’s voice was soft, his eyes slightly puffy and red from his tears as he scrubbed at his face with his arm. “I’m sorry dad…”

“Hey, no need to be sorry. You’re just trying to have fun while you’re still a child, just try to be a little more responsible about it.” He scruffed Wild’s hair up, getting a soft hiss of annoyance from the other.

“Daaaad! Stop messing up my hair!”

“Or what?”

“I’ll tell mom! She won’t let  _ you _ have dessert tonight.” WIld had both of his hands up in his hair, trying to straighten out the strands.

“Oh no… whatever shall I do without dessert? Ice cream before dinner maybe?” Time brought a hand up to his chin, tapping the knuckle of his index finger against it as if in thought. “It would be such a shame to eat a sundae all by myself…”

The mention of ice cream had Wild’s undivided attention and the boy stared at his dad with wide eyes. “I… I won’t tell mom if you share with me!”

He hemmed and hawed for a few moments, making a big show of thinking it over before he grinned at Wild. “Don’t tell you mother then. It can be a secret between just us, how does that sound?”

Wild made a motion like he was zipping his lips shut and locking it shut before throwing the ‘key’ away. “Won’t say a word dad! Can we have chocolate fudge and strawberries on it? OH! A banana split!”

Time chuckled softly and buckled himself back into his seat as Wild did the same. “A banana split sounds perfect. Let’s get going then shall we?”

“Yea!” There was an easy silence for a few minutes as they started towards the best ice cream place that Time knew of before Wild spoke up again. “Hey dad… does this mean I’m ungrounded?”

Hearing the slightly hopeful tone in Wild’s voice had him try not to laugh and he took a slow breath to stop himself from laughing before he sighed as he turned the car into the lot of the ice cream parlor. “You’re still grounded.”

“Dang it!”

“Nice try.”


	5. Lacrimoso of a Sheltered Puppet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt day 2: Rigid  
> A little glimpse of Legend’s life before he was adopted by the Forresters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won’t be able to contribute to this series too much as I had stuff to do in the middle of November, so I never managed to finish Sky High AU NaNo prompts.  
> But please enjoy this little piece.
> 
> warnings and tags: implied Authoritarian parents, implied emotional neglect, the author’s very little knowledge of instruments except for the piano, angst
> 
> Written by Okami_no_Fude (also known as Ammy)

Link Marquis let down the bow of his cello with a small sigh. It was the end of another of his long lessons with one of the many instruments that his parents had signed him up for. He quickly put his cello away in his case and stiffly bowed toward his teacher before leaving the room.

Link had to keep his temper in check as he played the cello, as he had another row with his parents earlier that day, but apparently, it had shown when his instructor reprimanded him that he was being more rigid than usual when he finished the verse he was assigned to practice.

Rigid.  
Just like how his life in the Marquis household is; cold, inflexible, and demanding.  
He was “the pride of the Marquis House”, and he had to be “trained” to be the “best, educated, and sophisticated Super.”

  
One of the ways they thought to do so was to have Link learn to play a variety of sophisticated instruments.  
He had expressed a love for music and playing the piano when he was very young, and it had expanded from that. A harp, then the cello, then the flute…

He kinda regretted showing his passion for music.

In the confines of the music room in his house, Link quietly let down his cello case before slowly walking toward the grand piano in the center of the room. He let his fingers glide along the sleek black side of the piano before coming to a stop to the front. Quietly, Link lifted the fallboard and folded the red keyboard dust cover, before situating himself in front of the white and black keys. Closing his eyes, he let his hands hover over the keys and took a deep breath before starting with a soft tone.

He never truly played this piano piece to anyone but himself, as it was his own way of letting himself be free from all the rigid restraints that he felt from being manipulated by his parents.  
He felt himself slowly sink into the smooth flow of playing this original piece, and the frustration that was bottled up in him being washed away.

Link never let his parents know that he had begun composing some of his own songs when he wanted to express himself. He did not want something of his very own to be tainted by his parent’s oppressive attitudes. This was something he created by himself, it expressed his very self.

He slowly let the notes die down as he ended the piece with a _smorzando_ , before slowly lifting his fingers away from the keys.

He hoped that in the future, he could actually let go and show his passion to the world without any restraint whatsoever.

But that would probably just remain as a dream, wouldn’t it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Legend is playing Ballad of the Wind Fish, I was listening to kylelandry’s piano cover when I wrote this.  
> Click this [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mrz83Cfbjc) if you are curious


	6. Ice Cream?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link was finally cleared by a pediatrician to eat things that a normal child can. Malon knows exactly what to do.
> 
> Day 20: Sweets Pre-story
> 
> Written by Cy

Having gotten the news that their youngest son was finally cleared to eat things any other child could, was like music to her ears. Malon had wanted to, for the better part of two years now, treat her littlest Link to sweets like ice cream and baked goodies. 

He was at a healthier weight, slightly under, but no longer in the danger zone of being malnourished. It was a work in progress and they were told he could start eating some processed sugars in moderate amounts. One cleared item of which was,  _ ice cream _ .

Twilight had been put out by not having ice cream with both Time and herself, but he understood that it wasn’t  _ fair _ for Link to not be included. Impatient, but understanding. On their way home she had Time stop at the local grocer and she gave him a small sly smile before she went inside, telling him to keep the boys busy while she picked up a few things.

Her cart had chocolate and vanilla ice cream, strawberry and chocolate syrup, and cookie crumbles as well as a new set of ice cream bowls and a hot fudge jar. Making her purchases as well as some fresh fruit and vegetables for their dinner, she brought everything back out to the car and put it all in the back. Time was teaching the boys a few more signs, Link was talking occasionally, but still preferred to use his hands, so they  _ all _ continued to learn more of the language.

“Ready now dear. Let’s head home. I want to make a big dinner. We have something to celebrate after all.” Malon settled in her seat and buckled in. Twilight was chattering on in the backseat, excited that they would be having a bigger and  _ richer _ meal now that his little brother was cleared.

“Mom might make tacos! Oh! Or even her pizza gramma taught her to make!” both of his legs were bouncing excitedly and his fingers were tugging at the straps of his booster seat.

Link was smiling faintly in his seat behind her, barely able to see it in her rear mirror. “I was actually thinking salmon meuniere Twilight. It’s a heavier meal, but not out of the ordinary. With rice and potatoes on the side.”

Twilight stared at her with wide eyes before he pouted faintly and huffed. “But  _ mooooom _ ! He hasn’t had pizza yet!”

“We’ll have that a different day this week. But  _ I  _ want to make this tonight. I don’t even have any dough made up for a pizza anyhow. Have to let it rise overnight young man.” Malon gently chided him. “Besides, don’t you want to help  _ make  _ it?”

“Really?!”

“Yes really. What about you Link, do you want to help me make the dough?” She turned a little further in her seat so she could see her youngests’ face and hands if he chose not to speak aloud.

There was some hesitation in his face before he lifted his hands.  _ ‘Will we be messy?’ _

“Definitely. Making dough is always going to be messy.” Malon gave him a smile and Time chuckled softly in the drivers seat.

“Your mother’s right. She  _ always _ makes a mess of the kitchen when she’s making any kind of dough or batter. Says’ it’s all the love she puts in it.” Time looked up in the mirror briefly before looking back down to the road. “You’ll have fun.”

Another moment of hesitation hung in the air, Twilight practically vibrating in his seat as he waited for his brothers response. Instead of using his hands this time, he put them on his seatbelt and opened his mouth, voice soft. “Okay mom. I wanna help too.”

The smile on her face was blinding and her eyes crinkled with it. “I’m happy you both want to help with it. We’ll do it after dinner, then we’ll have the pizza tomorrow. But I  _ do _ have a surprise for after dinner before we start on that.”

“A surprise? Mom what’s the surprise!?” Twilight started bouncing again in his seat, excitement practically rolling off of him. 

“You’ll see. All of us will enjoy it. After you both finish eating come back to the table, alright?”

“Yes mom!” Twilight grinned as he kicked his feet again.   
  


“Okay mom.” Link ducked his head shyly, another small smile on his face.

\--------

Dinner was a fun time, Link’s food was dug into with gusto and he cleared his whole plates portions and waited patiently for everyone else to finish their own. Twilight helped him put his dishes in the sink and they sat back down at the table while Malon and Time finished. Time was happy for what she was doing for Link and Twilight as a treat.

He helped her carry everything from where she had stashed it in the freezer out of their sight. Both tubs of ice cream in one hand and four of the ice cream bowls in the other. The sight of it in his hands had Twilight literally shooting up in his seat with excitement.

“Ice cream!” He scrambled up to his knees on his chair and had both hands on the table. “You bought ice cream! Link, you’ll like this stuff!” 

Link had looked at the two containers in Times hand before looking up to his brother and then over to their mom who finally came in with the extra fixings. “What’s ice cream?”

“Only the  _ bestest _ thing ever! It’s sweet and you can add lots of stuff to it!” Twi cheered and threw his hands up and out wide. “I like vanilla with strawberries or strawberry syrup!”

Everything had been set out on the table while Twilight had Link’s attention and Malon had pulled off the top of the vanilla ice cream while Time did the same for the chocolate. Malon had her hands on her hips and she was smiling at the enthusiasm. “I know Twilight, but Link gets to have his scooped out first alright?”

“Be patient for a few more minutes bud. You’ll get yours soon enough.” Time gave their eldest a smile and looked to Link who was looking between the two containers with curiosity. “Do you want to try a scoop of each?”

Link kind of shrunk down for a moment before he straightened up and looked between the two again. For a few moments he was quiet then he murmured, “Yes please dad.”

Both young boys had their respective ice creams scooped up quickly and set in front of them while Time and Malon both scooped out their own portions and made theirs the way they liked them. Once everyone was settled back down into their chairs, Twi had dug into his with gusto, ice cream and syrup was already smeared across one cheek.

Link was staring at the spoon in front of him with a small spoonful of chocolate ice cream on it. Bringing it up to his face he sniffed at it for a moment, unaware that his parents were watching him, waiting with small smiles as they started eating from their own bowls. It smelled good, and he  _ could _ smell the chocolate in it. 

Tentatively he opened his mouth and put the spoon inside. As soon as it hit his tongue his eyes went wide and he hurriedly swallowed that mouthful and went for another, and another. Soon enough he started getting a really cold headache, but he kept pushing on until his bowl was empty of the two scoops. 

The spoon was left in the bowl and he brought both hands up to his head, face scrunched up slightly and he whined softly. “Head hurts…”

Time chuckled and had a sympathetic smile on his face as he reached over and gently ran his fingers through his youngest son’s hair. “It’s called a brain freeze kiddo. You need to slow down on eating ice cream or that happens.”

“Why did you not tell?”

“For you to learn what it feels like once. The next time you eat it you won’t eat it so fast will you?” the elder asked gently.

“Nooo…. I’ll eat it slow…” Link whined softly and leaned his head towards Time’s hand which hadn’t moved away and was  _ warm.  _ It helped push out the chill and soon enough he was relaxed and looking back up to the rest of his family. 

Twilights face was a mess, somehow managing to get the sticky pink syrup on his nose and by his  _ ear _ , but he was grinning widely. “Did you like it?”

Link nodded his head with a matching smile. “It was good and sweet! Can I have more?”

“Not tonight, but tomorrow we can. You can’t eat too much at once or you can feel sick.” Malon told him after she finished her own bowl. “Now, lets get the table cleaned up. Take the bowls and spoons to the sink alright? Your father and I will get everything else now. Also, Twilight, wash your face off.”

“Yes mom.”


	7. Material Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The value of something cannot be measured by how many people have it. Money may be in abundance, but frivolous spending is something to curb fast.
> 
> Day 23: Money, Pre-story
> 
> Written by Cy

“Dad, can we get that?” Time turned his head to look at what Wild was pointing at. It was an inexpensive toy set that he  _ knew _ Wild would lose interest in rather quickly. It wasn’t a cooking toy or even something to do with the stars our outdoors. Fidget spinners were popular everywhere they went and while he knew that the toy would keep him occupied for a few hours a day, his youngest would only show interest in it for maybe a month then it would lay and collect dust for several months. 

“No, Wild.” He turned away from the shelf and continued walking. 

“Please dad? I promise I’ll play with it for a long time!” Wild’s voice was hopeful and Time sighed, stopping to turn back and face his son. 

“Wild, you said that about your Lego sets, yet they have sat in your closet collecting dust once you made the models several times.” He kept his own voice firm.

“But-”

“ _ Wild. _ ” He watched his son’s face pinch in upset at being told ‘ _ no’ _ and he sighed, reaching up to pinch at the bridge of his nose. Asking in exasperation, he pulled his fingers away from his nose to watch the 10 year old. “Why do you want one?”

The hopeful light came back into his son’s eyes and he perked up. “Because a lot of kids at school have one and I’ve played with a few of theirs with their permission. They are fun, especially the ones that light up! Thats the kind I want to get dad.”

“The answer is still no, Wild.” He held up a hand to stop a protest as Wild’s mouth opened and he took in a breath. “ _ No _ . Wild, you will grow bored of it and it will lay around like your Lego sets. I know you want one, but I’m not going to waste money on something like this alright?”

“But we have plenty of money don’t we?”

“We do, but that doesn’t mean that we need to buy  _ everything  _ we want kiddo. Just because I make a lot of money doesn’t mean that I’m going to buy whatever you want all the time. I told Twilight the same thing once.  _ ‘If you want it bad enough, save your allowance and buy it with the money you earned through chores.’ _ So save the money you get from your mother and I, and when have enough you can buy it for yourself alright?” He knew that it would take a repeated time or two to have Wild understand what he meant, but he also hoped that this would help instill a good habit.

He did make plenty of money, and so did Malon with the Ranch and what it supplied. But, that didn’t mean they needed to spend it frivolously on whatever caught their eyes. They had plans to go on a few family vacations in the next few years and Time had hopes that both boys would save some of their money for their own spending. His youngest was looking torn about what he should do before his shoulders drooped and he sighed with a small nod.

“Yes dad…” 

A small smile was on Time’s face and he reached out and ran his fingers through the boy’s hair. “Come on, we still need to meet your mom and brother in the grocery side. You  _ can _ pick out two snacks for tonight and tomorrow’s movies though. I can let you get that much.”

Watching his son’s face light up at being allowed to pick his snacks out, even though he knew full well that his son would end up making cookies or brownies and other finger foods with Malon. There was a bounce in his step as he darted forward. “Let's go then dad! I wanna get ice cream!”

Time chuckled and followed after his child to where he could see Malon’s bright red hair standing out in a sea of brown and blond hair. “Slow down Wild, the ice cream will be there waiting… Sheesh, this  _ has _ to be how my parents dealt with me…”


	8. Truth or Dare?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warriors is an absolute idiot. Sky is exasperated.
> 
> Day 16: Dare Pre-story
> 
> Written by Cy

“This is a bad idea.”

“Well,  _ obviously _ .”

“Warrior I really,  _ really _ don’t think that you should do this dare.” 

“Sky. I won’t back down from this one. It’s easy-peasy.”

_ “It’s the middle of winter.” _

“So?”

“Your tongue is going to get stuck to the metal!”

“Pssssh, thats a myth!”

“No it's  _ not _ .”

“All I gotta do is just put the tip of my tongue on the pole. It’s  _ not _ going to freeze to the pole.”

A frustrated noise left Sky’s mouth as he threw his gloved hands up in the air. “Fine, I give up! I’m going to say I told you so when it happens!”

Warrior rolled his eyes and looked at the flagpole in front of him, well aware of the eyes on him from the house behind him. They had been playing Truth-or-Dare and well, Twilight had chosen him and who was he to back down from a dare or challenge? “It’ll be fine.”

Sky heaved out a sigh and crossed his arms, shivering faintly inside his thick coat. “Well?”

“Hey, I’m looking for a good spot okay. Don’t rush me.”

“It’s  _ cold _ out here.”

“Then go back inside.”

“No, because I’m going to  _ laugh _ at you when you actually  _ do _ it.”

“Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Not a vote if I already know where this is going.” was the flat reply as Warrior found the  _ perfect _ spot and stopped in front of it. “Oh, good.”

“Hey. No commentary from the peanut gallery now. I’m gonna do this and then we can go back inside so you can warm up.” Warrior leaned closer to the spot on the pole he had chose and opened his mouth, tongue out.

He realized his mistake when he tried to pull back once his  _ warm _ tongue touched the ice cold  _ metal _ . Panic shot through him and he tried to jerk back only to make a distressed noise when the pull  _ hurt _ .

Sky had the  _ audacity _ to snort and start laughing behind his hand at his now rather unfortunate predicament. He laughed at him for a few moments, Warriors frantically trying to pry his now fused and steadily numbing tongue free from the metal. “I-I Hahaha- I  _ told _ you so!”

“Oi! Helf meh! ‘M sthuck!”

“I should  _ leave _ you out here.”

“Waith no! Plesh helf me Sky!”

Sky made a show of debating on if he was going to go back inside without him before he sighed and rubbed his face. “ _ Look _ . The trick to getting out of this is to breathe on your tongue. In through your nose and out through your mouth.  _ Carefully _ peel your tongue off of the pole as you do it or you’re going to rip your tongue off.”

Warrior whined softly before he started to do what he was told to. Following the breathing pattern as he was told and soon enough he was able to pull his tongue free and into his mouth. He promptly covered his mouth with a whine, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes as Sky gently started guiding him back inside. 

“Are you ever going to do this again?”

A muffled  _ ‘No’  _ was his answer and he waited until they were back inside to look his brother dead in the eye, a glint of mischief in them and a grin on his lips. “I could have come in to get warm water too you know.”

“You litthle schith!” Warrior yanked his hand away from his mouth to exclaim, which only drew a round of laughter from the other boys in the room waiting for them. Much to his embarrassment.


	9. A Wild Ride (Glasses)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wild gets up to shenanigans

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Sky said for perhaps the twelth time. 

“You think _ every  _ fun idea is a bad idea,” Warriors argued. 

They were standing in one of the fields behind the Forrester home, watching as Wild and Hyrule situated their…  _ contraption _ at the top of a hill. 

“He’s going to break his neck.”

“He won’t, it’s  _ Wild. _ It’s literally a requirement of his name.”

They watched as Wild climbed into the contraption - a tricycle with some other additions made to it. Hyrule stood behind him, and with the count of three,  _ pushed _ Wild down the hill.

Sky and Warriors watched with wide eyes as Wild careened down the hill, gaining speed as he did. They thought for a moment that the ride would be successful, until suddenly the front wheel of the tricycle hit a hole in the ground at the base of the hill. The wheel stuck in the hole, stopping the tricycle and sending Wild flying over the handlebars. 

“Wild!” they both shouted, in combination with Hyrule he came sprinting down the hill after his best friend.

They hadn’t even reached him by the time Wild popped up from where he had crashed. His hair had grass and a few twigs in it.

“Whoa!” Wild shouted. “That was crazy!” 

He ran over to meet them, yelling something rapid fire at Hyrule that Sky and Warriors couldn’t even hope to understand. 

In fact it was so animated that it took a few seconds before Sky finally noticed a detail missing from Wild’s person. 

“Uh, Wild?” Sky asked. “Where are your glasses?”

Wild paused, considering the question. He tapped at his face, as if trying to feel for his glasses that were not there. 

“Uh, I’m not sure?” He turned to look at Hyrule. “I had them on before I rode down the hill right?”

Hyrule nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure you did! Maybe they fell off when you flipped?”

“Oh!” You’re probably right!” 

They all looked back in the direction of where Wild had flipped his tricycle. 

Warriors couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled up as his eyes caught sight of the scene.

“Wild, I think I found your glasses,” he laughed.

Laying next to the turned over tricycle was Twilight in his wolf form, chewing on Wild’s glasses. 

“ _ Aw man _ ,” Wild whined. “That pair was brand new!”

  
  



	10. Speechless Moment (Dazzling)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sky is pining and Twilight and Warriors only want to help.

Sky sighed as he watched Sun from across the Academy’s courtyard. She was talking with the music instructor, Professor Kass, over some sheet music. When Sun noticed Sky watching, she smiled brightly at him and waved before turning back to Professor Kass. 

Sky waved back almost too late, sighing again as he dropped his hand.

“Do my ears deceive me, or is that the sound of pining that I hear?”

Sky didn’t bother to smother his groan at the call of his brother’s voice. 

“I was going to say the same,” Twilight’s voice came next. Because of course the two of them would choose to tag team their teasing of Sky and his dumb crush. “The smell of pining is strong today.”

“Ha, you’re both hilarious,” Sky said with a deadpan tone. “Also, Twi we all know your sense of smell isn’t _that_ strong outside of your wolf form.” He frowned and turned to the friend in question. “Actually, are your wolf senses _even_ strong enough to do something like that?”

Twilight paused to consider it. “I mean, _maybe_ ? My dad always seems to be able to sense emotions and things with his wolf form? Though that may be more of his ‘ _dad’_ instincts than his ‘ _wolf’_ instincts.”

On Sky’s other side, Warriors cleared his throat to draw their attention. “Wolf powers aside,” he said. “We need to figure out what to do about Sky’s pining. Because frankly,” Warriors put his hand down on Sky’s shoulder as Sky gave him an irritated look, “it’s getting quite annoying.” 

Sky shoved his brother’s side as Warriors and Twilight both sat down on either side of him. Twilight pulled out three lunch containers from his bag and handed them over to them. 

“ _Yes_ , Wild lunches,” Warriors cheered as he dug in. 

“Yep,” Twilight said. “Wild has been on a Sheikah recipe kick lately, not that I’m one to complain. Today’s menu: teriyaki pork or jackfruit, rice, and veggies. Also Sky, the jackfruit is fresh, not canned. Wild peeled it last night.”

“Major props for that,” Warriors said. “I hear you need to be rather _jacked_ to crack open a jackfr- HEY!”

The last exclamation was caused by Twilight smacking him in the back of the head. 

“Don’t mess up my hair, Forrester,” Warriors grumbled.

“Shut up and eat your food then,Cielo,” Twilight shot back.

Warriors pouted but did as he was told. He stabbed a piece of his pork with his fork and held it up towards Twilight, making a show about sticking it in his mouth. Sky scrunched his nose up at the meat, but didn’t say anything. Just because he chose not to eat meat didn’t mean he was going to stop Warriors and Twilight from doing so. 

Well, Twilight kinda had to, being a wolf shifter and all, but that was beside the point. 

Sky turned to his own lunch, happily picking up some of the jackfruit and rice with his fork. The flavor burst in his mouth as he at it and he couldn’t help but give a happy hum at the taste.

“Goddesses, this is amazing,” Warriors muttered with his mouthful. “Twilight make sure Wild knows I’m going to marry him one day just so I can eat food like this all the time.”

“Agreed,” Sky said. “Not the marrying Wild part. Just the eating his cooking part. He did a spectacular job with this one.”

Twilight laughed as he opened up his own lunch. “I will make sure to let him know,” he said. 

The three took their time eating, enjoying the culinary creations of Twilight’s younger sibling. They made some casual small talk, discussing their classes and the upcoming final exams that would mark their freshman year at the Hylian Youth Academy for Advanced Heroics complete. 

(They all realized and embraced the fact that their school’s acronym was HYAAH. It felt fitting, somehow). 

As they ate, the topic of Sky’s apparent pining over Sun was dropped. Until…

Sun walked up to their table.

“Hi everyone,” she said brightly. Sky heard Warriors and Twilight responding beside him, but he was too distracted by Sun’s cheerful smile to say anything himself.

He’d had a crush on Sun for probably two years now. He’d known her since he was nine years old, meeting her at the end of the summer his family to their current home. His memories were fuzzy from that summer, due to the accident he’d been caught in that had led to them moving in the first place, but he would always remember the first time he saw Sun through the shared picket fence between their two houses. 

It was cliche to say, but Sun had become more and more beautiful over the years. With her bright blonde hair and stunning blue eyes… and even more the way she was always so friendly and caring. 

Sun was an absolutely amazing person, and Sky was head over heels for her.

He was jarred out of his thoughts by a sharp elbow to the ribs. (It was Warriors’ elbow. He’d felt that jab enough playing video games at home to know). 

“Huh?” Sky said, shaking his head and tuning back into the conversation. He met Sun’s eyes from across the table, her expression crinkled up as she smiled. 

“I was gonna ask if you wanted to review for our final exams later on,” she said. “Have to make sure my partner is ready to go, after all.”

Even though he’d had nearly a full school year to get used to it, hearing Sun calling him her ‘partner’ always tended to frazzle Sky. He resisted the urge to reach up and rub at the back of his head as he smiled back at her. 

“Sure,” he said. “I’m helping Mom at the clinic tonight, but tomorrow maybe? I’ll text you later and we can figure it out.”

“Sounds good!” Sun said. She glanced down at the watch she wore. “Oh, I gotta go I was meeting Dusk and Artemis before our next class. I’ll see you guys around!”

With that she took off across the courtyard. As she disappeared from sight, Sky let out a groan and dropped his head onto the table.

“That was painful to watch,” Warriors commented bluntly as Twilight reached up to pat Sky on the back. 

“Try being the one living it,” Sky muttered. 

“You know,” Twilight said. “I may be reading into this, but… Sun asking you to study * _almost_ * sounded as if she was asking you on a date.”

Sky flipped his head over to look at Twilight in surprise. “What?” he asked.

The wolf shifter shrugged. “I’m just saying, that’s the kind of vibe I was getting when she asked.”

Sky lifted his head enough to look in the direction of where Sun had gone. “Really?” he asked, not trying to sound too hopeful.

Beside him, Warriors hummed. 

“You know,” he said. “The end of school festival is coming up soon after exams. I’ve heard that it’s normally a pretty romantic thing for school couples.”

“I’ve heard that too,” Twilight said. “You should ask Sun.”

Sky frowned. He had thought about asking Sun out. He’d thought about it a lot of times. But…

“I don’t know, I don’t want things to end badly and us have to switch partners,” he said. “We work well together. I don’t want to ruin it.”

Warriors stifled a laugh. “Do you honestly believe things would end badly with you two? You’re both, like, the most friendly people on the planet. With the exception of maybe Wild but that’s just because he bribes people with baked goods.”

They all three chuckled at that, and Sky took a breath as he considered what they were saying. 

“You really think I should ask her to the festival?” he asked, looking between the two. 

“Yes!” Warriors shouted. Twilight nodded in agreement. 

Sky took another breath, making his decision. 

“Okay,” he said. Ignoring the cheers of his brother, he felt a grin form on his face as ideas of how to go about this started to pop into his brain. “I’m gonna need some help though.”

He looked over at Twilight and saw his friend grinning from ear to ear. 

“Absolutely. Tell us what you need.”

*** * ***

A few weeks later, Sky sat out under the stars as the fireworks of the festival lit up the sky. And as spectacular as the fireworks were, they were nowhere near as dazzling as the girl who sat beside him.

  
  



	11. Recipe of Understanding (Rigid)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wild and Legend have an important conversation over homemade Oreos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild warnings for this chapter:
> 
> This chapter does include discussions of gender identity and some light references to what could be interpreted as gender dysphoria, though that phrase is never directly used and no identifying anatomy is mentioned. There is also reference to homophobia and transphobia, as well as an unsupportive household (Legend's birth parents were assholes, alright?)

It was a quiet Saturday morning. Wild was in his favorite place: the kitchen of his house. It was just him and Legend in the house currently. Malon had dragged Twilight out to the farm supply store to look into new saddle blankets and Time had some sort of teacher thing that he had to attend. Wild wasn’t sure what, he hadn’t paid attention to that over breakfast, having been too excited to try this new cookie recipe he had found. Apparently, someone had figured out a way to make Oreos at home, and Wild was eager to test it out himself. 

He’d been at it all morning, and was just waiting now to pull the cookies out of the oven so he could put the icing on them. 

He was responding to a text from Hyrule about their homework when a slight noise outside the kitchen made his ears twitch. Wild lifted his head to see Legend hovering next to the door. 

The newest member of the Forrester family had been with them for about a month now, maybe a little longer. He was settling in well, Wild thought. Or he had been, until a few weeks ago when he caught Wild getting ready for school one day. 

It wasn’t really a secret to most who knew Wild that he was genderfluid. Wild didn’t really hide it, and didn’t really care if others knew (it was hard to care about others judging you for your gender when they’re already judging you for your birth mother being one of the most evil super villainesses to have existed, Wild figured). 

The problem was that with not caring, he had never specifically _told_ Legend. So to have his new brother walk by his bedroom door one morning and see Wild in a dress… it had definitely surprised both of them. 

Legend had been avoiding Wild since the encounter, and Wild didn’t know why. He figured it had something to do with Legend’s upbringing. He didn’t know the whole story, but he had been able to figure out that the Marquis parents were really strict and… old fashioned. It was likely Legend was just uncomfortable with someone _biologically_ male wearing something that was feminine. 

It was… awkward, to say the least. Wild didn’t like the idea of making Legend uncomfortable, but at the same time… he couldn’t change who he was (a fact _he wished_ so many people understood, not for his gender but… well anyway). 

Wild had wanted to talk to Legend about it, but with the other avoiding him he hadn’t been able to. 

Now though, Legend was hovering outside of the kitchen with it just the two of them home, and Wild wasn’t going to let the opportunity go to waste.

“Hey Legend!” he said. “I’m almost ready to start icing these cookies! You want to come help?”

Legend startled as he seemed to be brought out of thought. 

“Oh, uh, sure I guess.” He shuffled into the kitchen and stood awkwardly at the counter with Wild’s supplies. “Where should I…”

“Oh here!” Wild said, pointing to a place at the counter. “I’m about to pull the cookies out, though we’ll have to let them cool first. Otherwise the icing will melt.”

Legend frowned at all of the cooking supplies that Wild had set out. “I’ve never really baked before,” he said. “We… at my old home there was a household chef, so there was never really the need.”

“That’s okay,” Wild said. “I can teach you.”

He started to explain to Legend about the different tools he had out, and soon the oven timer dinged. He quickly pulled out the cookies and set them on his cooling wrack before turning back to Legend. 

Legend was holding a whisk in his hand, squeezing the wires together absent-mindedly. Wild frowned, knowing there was something on Legend’s mind.

“Hey,” he said slowly. “Is there anything you want to talk about?”

“Huh?” Legend asked, looking up. “Oh… no there’s not I just…” he paused, frowning down at the whisk. “No, actually there is. I… I was wanting to ask you about something but…” Legend took a breath. “The other week when you were wearing that dress to school. I wanted to ask why.”

Wild blinked. He probably should’ve expected for Legend to ask something like that. 

“Well, for one thing dresses are really comfortable,” Wild answered casually. “But the main reason I was wearing it that day was because it was a girl day for me.”

“Girl day?” Legend asked carefully, looking up at Wild. 

Wild nodded. “Yeah. I’m genderfluid. Sorry I never got around to officially telling you. I tend to forget not everyone knows that fact about me.”

Legend’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Genderfluid?”

“You don’t know what that is?” Wild asked, tilting his head to the side. 

Legend looked back down at the whisk, plucking at the wires gently. “I… I’ve read about it before,” he said. “But I didn’t really understand it. I’ve not had much of a chance to read up on things like that, living in my old home.”

“Oh, okay, well I can explain if you would like,” Wild offered. When Legend gave a near imperceptible nod, Wild took the chance to pull up one of the bar stools to sit on. He had a feeling this would be a long conversation. Legend followed his lead, and Wild took a breath to start.

“So, this is the way that Aunt Sheik explained it to me when I was first trying to figure it all out myself. To start with, one thing that is a misconception is that gender is a rigid thing. That it is limited to two sides and that you’re stuck with whatever side you are born with biologically. That’s not how it works though. The way Aunt Sheik described it to me was that gender is a moving, breathing thing. It flows and changes. Sometimes it can pool up and that can be where you decide to stay, and that becomes what you feel your gender identity is. But for people like me who are genderfluid, it’s like my gender is constantly moving and never really settles. It will… _pause_ for a while, I guess, but then it’ll shift around again.”

Wild paused for a moment to choose his words. He’d never really had to explain his gender like this to anyone, most people hearing the term “genderfluid” and just taking it as is. He hoped he was doing okay. 

“For me, I tend to be fluid between male and female genders. Occasionally I’ll have days where I’m in a bit of an in-between, or even neither, but those are rarer.” Wild frowned at how Legend was focusing on the flour on the counter. His shoulders were tensed, and it still looked like there was a lot of confusion in his expression. Wild took a breath. 

“I hope that made sense,” he said. “I’ve never really had to explain my gender that way. Most people don’t bother to ask about the details.”

“No, it made sense,” Legend answered.

“Oh,” Wild said. “Then… I uh… did that answer you question? About the dress?”

Legend nodded, not turning to face Wild. He picked up a handful of flour in his fist before realizing what he was doing. When he did realize, he sighed and dropped his fist. 

“Honestly, the dress wasn’t the main aim of my question,” he said. “I just don’t know how to ask the second part.”

Wild waited to see if Legend was going to say anything else. It looked like he wanted to, and Wild didn’t want to make him feel like he couldn’t speak. 

Finally, Legend did.

“I guess I just… growing up, I never thought that wearing dresses was something that someone who was biologically male could do. My parents were always making comments about… _those_ kinds of people. But when I hit middle school, a kid in my class came out as transgender. Male to female, which was a _huge_ deal since I went to an exclusive boys academy. Obviously the student wasn’t allowed to remain at the school, but that was the first time I had heard of something like that. From that point, I began to notice kids talking about that kind of stuff at school and… well, it was a natural curiosity.”

Legend took a breath. 

“It’s been a few years since I realized it… that I wasn’t… wasn’t exactly _male_ . But I’ve never had a chance to figure out _what_ I am. But when I saw you in that dress a while back, it made me wonder about you and… well its just taken me this long to finally get up the courage to ask.”

Wild gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Well, I’m glad you did,” he said. “Did my explanation give you an idea?”

Legend scrunched up his nose. “I don’t know. It… sounds close to how I feel, but I don’t think that’s it exactly.”

“Well then why don’t you describe how you feel and I can try to help? When I was trying to figure out my own stuff, Aunt Sheik had me looking up all sorts of research for it, so I’m pretty well versed as far as the terminology goes.”

Legend nodded slowly. “So, the thing is, while I am _biologically_ male, I don’t really feel like that’s what I am? But I don’t feel like I’m female, or neither or both, but maybe I’m like all? It’s like… I feel like I _have_ a gender, I guess, but there isn’t a specific way to describe it.”

“Well, maybe you don’t need a specific word to describe it,” Wild said. When Legend looked at him with confusion, he clarified. “When it comes to stuff like this, labels are nice because we like to have a way to explain stuff so others can also know. But sometimes labels are just a nuisance. You are what you are, and no word or combination of words will make a difference with that.”

“You really do know a lot about this kind of thing,” Legend commented. 

“Yup. I learned it all from Aunt Sheik. When I first started questioning my gender, she was who my parents called in to answer my questions since she’s genderqueer herself… Oh! That could be it!”

Legend startled at Wild’s exclamation. “What?” he asked.

“Genderqueer,” Wild said. “It’s a bit of a catch all, but its for people who don’t feel like they are male or female, and just kinda feel…” he flapped his hands in a sort of ‘I don’t know’ gesture “about gender. The way Aunt Sheik explained it is she interprets genderqueer as a kind of the ‘I don’t give a fuck’ way of expressing gender.”

Legend’s eyes widened at that.

“That… sounds really good, actually. ‘I don’t give a fuck’.” He grinned. “ _I like it_.”

Wild grinned back. “I’m glad we found something you think fits,” he said. “If you want, we can call Aunt Sheik and she can explain more for you?”

“Yeah, that’d be great, though…” Legend frowned again. “I don’t know if I am ready for a lot of people to know yet. I know the term ‘I don’t give a fuck’ should make it easy to not care, but…”

“That’s completely understandable,” Wild said. “You’re allowed to take your time with things like this.”

Legend nodded and glanced over at the cookies. “So… you wanted help with icing the cookies, right?” he asked. 

“Oh!” Wild said. “Yes, we should do that. Twi was saying he wanted to eat them as soon as they got home, so we should probably finish them up.”

“I get to have first try though, right?” Legend asked as they stood up from their stools and got ready to set to icing. “Since I’m helping?”

Wild shot him a grin. “Obviously. Taste testing is the best part of baking.”

Legend laughed. “If that’s the case then maybe I will start helping you bake more.”

They both laughed at that. As the laughter quieted down and they got set into a rhythm with their icing, Legend spoke up again. 

“And, Wild. Thanks. For talking with me.”

Wild gave him a smile. “Of course,” he said. “It’s what siblings are for.”

*** * ***

When they had finished icing the cookies, Legend decided to go ahead and call Sheik, who was free of the teacher thing that was still tying Time up. 

She came over and the three talked for several hours over Wild’s homemade oreos and fresh Lon Lon milk. 

The evening ended with Wild having to promise to make Twilight more oreos and Legend who felt much more comfortable with who he was than he had felt in a long, long time. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick thing about this chapter: 
> 
> In the SH AU, we've chosen to write Wild as genderfluid and Legend as genderqueer. (Sheik as well, identifies as genderqueer. She primarily presents as female, but does not care much about pronouns or identification). This chapter is the one shot I wrote about Wild explaining to Legend about his understanding of gender in hopes of helping Legend be able to understand more about his own self. 
> 
> I myself, as the writer of this chapter, am cis and therefore have no personal experience with being a person outside of the traditional gender binary. With that being said, I hope I did an accurate job of portraying how both of these two react to and understand gender. 
> 
> Please ( _kindly_ ) let me know if there is something I need to change or something I could do better. I'm still growing and learning as an author, so there is always a place to improve. 
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Tay (aka pulveremcomedesligulas)


	12. A Special Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today was the big day, the day Link Forrester would marry the love of his life, so why was he so nervous?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 1: Dazzling  
> Now with a special guest appearance from a character from the Sky High movie and a character from another superhero movie
> 
> Written by Judai

“I don’t know Jonathan, what if she decides to change her mind and cancel the whole thing? Or her family decides to protest the whole thing?” Link tugged nervously on his tie as Jonathan combed through his hair, the pair getting ready for the ceremony.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you two are so in love it makes me a little green around the gills if you know what I mean. Listen, you love her right?”

“More than anything in the world.”

“And she knows you love her?”

“I really hope so.”

“Then that’s all that matters. Nothing else matters today, except the two of you being happy. Now try to relax, you look like you’re going to be sick.”

“John’s right, you look like you’re ready to throw up. Try not to throw up until after the ceremony.” A voice called from the doorway, and both men turned to look.

Zelda had her hair down and it reached to the middle of her back. She was wearing a knee-high violet dress and black flats. 

“Wow, you look great,” Jonathan muttered from next to Link.

“Yeah, I think this is the first time I’ve seen you wearing a dress.” Link smirked as he looked at his partner.

“Enjoy the moment while it lasts, it’s never going to happen again.” Zelda scoffed at the two males, rolling her eyes. “Now come on, the ceremony’s about to begin. You are not going to be late to your own wedding ‘hero of time.’”

“Alright, alright, you got me. Let’s go Jonathan, before she decides to drag us out there herself.”

As they walked to the wedding aisle, his nervousness spiked even higher. It wasn’t a big ceremony, with a guest list of about thirty people, but when he saw the seats packed, it felt like there was over 100. He swallowed, steeling his nerves before walking up to the altar.

They had chosen to do the ceremony on the family ranch, so it wasn’t too unfamiliar. It was out in the field, so they wouldn’t be too close to the horses and cows, but Link could still make out the barn in the distance.

He looked up as the music started to play. That meant the ceremony was starting. He stood up straight, adjusting his tie one last time as Zelda came down the ceremony, arm in arm with Malon’s older cousin, Cremia. As soon as they got to the altar, they split up, Zelda going to stand next to Link and Cremia stood on the opposite side. 

“How are you feeling Link?”

“Like I’m going to throw up.”

“Don’t you dare.” Zelda hissed at him. 

Jonathan was next, coming down the aisle with Malon’s younger cousin Romani. Link shifted uneasily as Jonathan stood next to Zelda. This was it, it was actually happening, he was getting married.

The music changed again, and Link’s heart fluttered as Malon came into view, her arm looped with her father’s while another clutched a bouquet. She looked absolutely stunning, her beautiful red hair was done up in curls and she was wearing a dazzling white dress that flowed off her body. 

As she got to the altar, she released her father’s arm and handed the bouquet to her cousin before turning to face Link.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the union between Link Forrester, and Malon Riddari. Now I believe the couple has prepared their own vows?”

Link coughed nervously, trying to clear his throat before speaking up.

“Malon, when I first met you, I was absolutely terrified of what you were capable of. Never in my life have I witnessed someone take a person down by throwing a cow at them. But at that moment, I knew there was something special about you. You are a strong and independent woman, who doesn’t need a ‘big strong Hero’ to swoop in and save her, but you gave me a chance. 

With your love, you have broken down my roughest edges. You know how to calm my worried mind, and you know how to love me unconditionally. Through everything we’ve been through, you’ve been my rock, you’ve helped me through the good and bad.. And I’m ready to spend the rest of my life doing the same for you. I promise that through each stage of life we share together, I will appreciate you, challenge you, respect you, both as your best friend, and now your Husband. And to love you so deeply, that the word doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

“Link, when I was younger, I never imagined I would be standing here, with a man who’d run into my father’s ranch wearing skin-tight green suit while chasing a maniac. But spending time with you, you showed this ferocious love for your family that I didn’t know could exist, but you weren’t afraid to be vulnerable. While most people saw you as a superhero, the knight in shining armor, I knew that deep down, you were a gentle soul, someone that one second could be fighting a monster, and the next, playing therapist to a little old farm girl like me. 

“In all these years, my love has never wavered, and I promise it never will. And I want you to know, that every compromise, every tough road we’ve been down, has been worth it, to call you my husband. And in the future, to call you the father of my children. You are the dream I had as a little girl when I imagined that I would spend my life with. You are the most handsome, hard-working, and supportive man. I couldn’t imagine my life without you. 

“I vow to always be faithful and supportive. I vow to be your toughest ally and fiercest defender. I vow to honor you, respect you, and encourage you every day. I vow to put you first. I vow these things and more in my heart because I know our love is the kind that will last forever. I love you.” 

“With this ring, I do wed, I pledge my life, and my love to you.” Link repeated after the officiator, sliding the ring onto Malon’s finger.

“All I am, all I have, all I hope to be,” Malon repeated, sliding the ring onto Link’s finger.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife, Link, you may now kiss the bride.”

Link and Malon leaned in, and the crowd cheered as they kissed.

“It is my honor to introduce to you for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs. Link Forrester.”

Link offered his arm to his new wife, and Malon was happy to take it as they walked down the aisle, everyone around them shouting and cheering. Link couldn’t hide the grin on his face, this was the happiest he’d ever been. 

Link’s ears perked up as he heard people start shouting and the earth started to shake underneath them. A few yards away, in the opposite direction of the barn, the earth cracked open and a strange-looking mole man came from underneath.

“I am the Underminer! I am always beneath you, but nothing is beneath me! I hereby declare war on teeth and happiness! Soon, all will tremble before me!”

Link glanced around the area, he knew it would take several minutes for another hero to get here, but he couldn’t just interrupt their wedding for what was possibly a B-Class Villain. He felt a tug on his arm and he looked down at Malon.

“Go get ‘em Fairy Boy.” She grinned, and Link gave her one last kiss before shifting into his wolf form and raced across the field. Maybe if he got this over with fast enough, he’d still make it in time for the reception


	13. Piecing it together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flora makes some connections and pieces together what she was missing.
> 
> Day 6: Weak - Freshman Year
> 
> Written by Cy

Papers were scattered all over her floor and pinned against a large cork board that was propped against her bedroom wall. She was leaning against the side of her desk, facing it with her knees pulled up to her chest and both arms wrapped around them, pulling both limbs close. 

Flora stared at the map of the entirety of central Hyrule, eyes tracing the colored threads leading from one clear pin to another, making a pattern she was still trying to decipher. It had been almost two months since her partner was kidnapped by his birth mother and they were still no closer to finding where she had taken and hidden him away in. 

A ball of pink yarn was hanging from the most recent addition to the board and Flora was trying to piece together what was going on with the choices of locations where they were finding Majora’s horrible ‘ _ gifts _ ’. Something about it was bothering her about the newest location and she couldn’t quite place where it was coming from.

Everything that Sky had learned from the animals he’d asked to keep an eye out were connected by a dark blue yarn, the strings crossing over one another  _ dozens  _ of times haphazardly with no pattern that she could see yet. Yellow yarn showed  _ actual _ sightings made by the news in regards to her, but there was so few of them she couldn’t really count them.

She ducked her face down to her knees and curled tighter, feeling the burn of tears in her eyes building up quite rapidly. Flora hadn’t known Wild all that long, having only known of him through rumor and her fathers own judgements, but once she took off the blinders that prevented her from seeing  _ Wild  _ as he truly was… She had learned Wild was  _ nothing _ like what he’d been painted as.

Wild was and  _ is _ a kid simply doing what he could to prove to the world he was someone good. He was smarter than he let on, quick to think on his feet, an absolute riot to hang around, a good friend, and always there. Even when she had screamed at him at her lowest moment in early September when he asked why she wouldn’t practice with him.

He never saw her how she saw herself, weak and pathetic and powerless. The boy she quickly warmed up to after he apologized for pushing her beyond her comfort, grew to be a good friend in that short time between that emotional explosion and the day he went missing. 

Then not even a full month after that, his newest brother, Legend, was found unconscious in a classroom after hours with no one knowing what happened. He’d just woken up shortly after Yule and had been told that his birth parents were  _ dead _ and that they were still searching for his little brother. That was a mess in of itself because no one could figure out why Legend had even been targeted in the first place. 

Her fingers clenched tightly against her skin as she remembered that day. Tears started to fall and she swiped at her eyes with one hand and sat up, stretching out her legs to fix her eyes on the cork board mess again.  _ Legend _ was on the mend and would be back on his feet quickly thanks to the doctors actions. 

Three of the things that had been left out for them to find had appeared in places Twilight or Mr. Forrester could find when they were walking to and from the parking lot at the hospital where Legend was still recovering. Another ‘present’ in fact, a braid of long blond hair this time, had been left under a bush around the entrance to the hospital and Twilight has been the one to find it  _ aga- _

Between one blink and the next as she stared at the board, mind whirling violently in thought, something clicked into place and she scrambled forward on her hands and knees. “But… It couldn’t be that simple… Could it?”

Her fingers came up to start tracing the path from the start of the first thing Majora left for them to find all the way to the most recent one. _Right back at the start once more._ **_Again_**.

“It _ is _ that simple… How did I not see this before? She’s repeated several of the locations at least twice! The animals have been spotting her in a centralized area… But there are still so many places to rule out from their observations. How do we narrow it down without alerting her..?”

The thoughts that had been plaguing her mind earlier of her weaknesses being brought to the front, were gone. Flora’s mind focused as she grabbed for her phone, intent on calling Twilight and letting him know she’s got a lot of information to give them.


	14. Say "Cheese"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Photographs are taken, a disturbance come to play. Freedom and safety are within reach.
> 
> Day 15: Cheese, Freshman Year
> 
> Written by Cy
> 
> Note: this leads directly into "Was it a Dream?"

“Say ‘Cheese’ Link~”

  
  
  


There was a soft whisper in response. “Cheese…”

_ Click _ .

Silence was in the room as the photographer admired the picture on the screen for a moment. 

“ _ So precious… _ look at you _. _ ”

A hitch in Link’s breathing was audible as the one who took his photo lifted the camera again to face him. "I want you to smile for me now~"

Links eyes fluttered as he tried to move his mouth into the shape of a smile. It was _ harder _ than it should have been to even try for one, but he didn't care. He couldn't smile for real anyway.

_ Click. _

Another photo taken, another thing to chronical his captivity. Another thing Mamajora would use against his parents.

_ Had they forgotten him? _

_ Were they even still searching for him? _

Tears welled up in his eyes and he felt his breath hitch as they slipped free. He was  _ terrified  _ that they had left him alone here and had moved on. Mamajora had made it clear that time was passing by judging by the holidays she made sure to 'celebrate' with him.

"Two years today my dear. I brought you home to me two years ago, and I'm  _ so _ happy that we are together." She must have just looked up because Link wasn't looking at her when her hand reached out to touch his face. Her thumb slid across his cheek while her fingers supported his chin.

"No need to cry my little Link, you're safe and will be happy here." Majora's voice was soft, almost soothing in quality. Her fingers tilted his head to look up at her and he blinked slowly as he finally met her eyes. 

_ Two years? Two years and he was still trapped with her? _

The tears flowed harder, even if he couldn't sob anymore, she just brushed them aside, cooing soft words at him in a way she was obviously attempting to soothe him. He didn't want to be here anymore, he'd rather be anywhere else but here, but at the same time…

_ He was terrified to leave without her. _

Her hand had pulled back and Link blinked slowly again, feeling a fresh set of tears flow from his eyes. The camera was back, far closer to his face than it usually was and he knew she was aiming to get a solid picture of his tears. He squeezed his eyes shut tight, turning his face from the camera as much as he could.

A hand gripping his chin turned him back to face the lens, but he kept his eyes squeezed shut. Tears were still leaking from his eyes and he heard a frustrated noise escape her as she hissed out. “ _ Open your eyes, Link. _ ”

He swallowed thickly and shook his head minutely, biting back a whimper when sharp fingernails dug into the skin of his cheeks and chin. “ _ Look at me child. _ ”

Water blurred his vision as he blinked both eyes open, listening to her before he ended up punished worse than he probably could be. His lashes fluttered slightly before his chin was released and the camera was close to his face once more. 

“Don’t you  _ dare _ turn away again. You know what will happen if you do it again.” 

Link nodded his head slightly, a soft whine in his throat where he struggled to smother it down. Majora vanished behind the camera again and he tried not to stare at the tiny reflection on the lense. He didn’t know what he looked like anymore, not really. He knew he was almost a perfect mirror to Majora in the face, with only the scars to seperate them. 

Instead of staring at his warped reflection, he focused on a point a little ways up and to the left of the device. There were a few long moments of silence before she shifted as the tears falling from his eyes started to slow.

“One more time dear… Say ‘cheese’.”

“ _ Cheese _ ...”

The shutter of the camera was covered by the sound of a loud thud from further in the warehouse. Majora straightened up and whipped around to face the doorframe. Her hair spun with her and the camera was dangling from her hand.

Another thud echoed down the hallway and Link finally let his head drop forward, to stare at his lap where his hands were settled. He didn’t react to her touch when she turned back to run her fingers through his hair. “Stay here my dear, remember the rules.”

“Don’t talk to anyone and stay put…” he murmured as she pulled her hand away.

“Good. I’ll be back soon once I’ve taken care of this pest. I’ll have a reward for you when I get back if you’re still in this very spot.” 

“Yes Mamajora…” There was the feeling of a spike of pain in his chest as Majora slipped away. The room was silent now and he was left with nothing but his thoughts. But then…

Footsteps approached him and a gentle hand settled on his shoulder. He fought to not flinch away, only to lift his head as an  _ achingly _ familiar voice said something he hadn’t heard in two years. 

_ “Wild?” _


	15. Saturday Shenanigans? (Entertain)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wild and Hyrule were up to something, Legend could tell.
> 
> He just wasn't prepared to figure out _what_ it was that they were up to.
> 
>   
> (Also known as the Legend gets introduced to a childhood classic on a rainy Saturday.)

Wild and Hyrule were up to something, Legend could tell. He’d only been with the Forresters for a few weeks, but during that time, he had come to expect certain behaviors from them. 

Namely, he expected them to want to be outside instead of inside if at all possible. 

So, reasonably, he expected them to be pouting the entire day when they had the first rainy Saturday since Legend had come to live with them. 

But they weren’t, and that was definitely suspicious. 

To make it worse, at some point between breakfast and lunch, Twilight’s friends Sky and Warriors also arrived at the Forrester household. Legend made sure to keep an eye on them while they all ate lunch, because something was  _ definitely up _ .

He had planned to avoid them for the sake of his own sanity, and after lunch had headed towards his bedroom with the intent to work on homework when Wild caught him in the hallway.

“Legend!!” he said excitedly. “You gotta come to the living room with us!”

“Why? I have homework to do.”

“Twi can help you with it later! But you gotta come watch with us now!”

“Watch what?” Legend asked, not wanting to follow his new brother, but he didn’t resist when Wild pulled on his arm. 

“Avatar!” Wild said, his excitement not dwindling at all.

“That movie with the blue people?” Legend asked. That didn’t seem like the kind of movie Wild or really any of the others would like to watch. 

Warriors, maybe. Legend could see him liking it. 

“What? No,” Wild said. “We’re watching  _ Avatar: The Last Airbender _ !”

“You mean that kid’s show?” Legend asked.

By now, they had reached the entrance of the living room, and Legend did not miss the scandalized gasps from the other occupants in the room, nor the stunned silence that followed his statement. 

Legend looked up and saw that everyone was looking at him with various expressions of shock.

Sky looked concerned, Twilight looked confused, Hyrule looked amazed, and Warriors looked like Legend had spat in his soup. 

“What do you mean kid’s show?” Warriors asked. “ _ Avatar: The Last Airbender _ is the most amazing piece of entertainment ever created. It has everything you could ever need: amazing worldbuilding, character development,  _ fantastic _ plot…”

“It’s a  _ cartoon _ ,” Legend insisted, turning to Wild in preparation to insist he be let free to go do his homework.

Except Wild had a devious look on his face, and Legend suddenly wondered if he should fear for his life (or at least his chemistry grade).

“It also has an incredible soundtrack,” Wild said with a grin. 

Legend stared at him for a moment before groaning and stomping into the living room. He pushed Twilight’s legs off of the couch and plopped down onto the seat. 

“Fine,” he said. “One episode. Then I gotta do homework.”

**…**

By the time Malon finally sent them all to bed in the very early hours of the morning (Warriors, Sky, and Hyrule had all chosen to stay the night, but they’d been sent to bed about 1 am because they were being too loud), they had watched through nearly half of the series, and Legend had learned several things:

  1. Hyrule, with his powers giving him the ability to control fire, air, earth, and water, was _actually_ the Avatar
  2. His favorite characters were Toph and Sokka, though Wild insisted he would probably grow to like Zuko a lot more once they got to season 3
  3. His favorite episode of season 1 had been where they met King Bumi
  4. He, like many others apparently, despised Commander Zhao. (Warriors, a self-professed war history nerd, had proceeded to go on a near 30 minute rant about the failure of his attack on the Northern Water tribe. Legend had found it very amusing). 
  5. Warriors and Twilight _would_ cry over a cartoon, though Legend couldn’t quite blame them. Even he had fought to not tear up when Yui sacrificed herself for the others. 
  6. Sky had a giant Appa plushie that he’d had since he was about 9. Apparently it was as big as he had been when he had gotten it. 
  7. Wild was right. It _did_ have an amazing soundtrack.



Legend almost hated having to go to bed, but it was okay. 

_ They’d already made plans to finish watching it tomorrow.  _

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, ATLA 100% canonically exists as a TV show in this universe, and yes, it is a favorite of the Links. Sorry, I don't make the rules.


	16. Storm the Kingdom (Castle)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time should've known there was no change of a casual day trip. 
> 
> Not when he's in charge of a group of rabid gremlins.

As Time pulled the passenger van into the parking lot, he felt what could only be described as a feeling of absolute dread - something he was pretty sure one was not supposed to feel when about to enter the “most magical place on earth”. As he found a parking spot, cheers (started by Wind) rose up from the back of the van, only to be stopped by a sharp hiss of  _ “shut up” _ from Legend. 

It had been a long drive from the ranch that morning, and Time was ready to be free of the eight teenage boys currently packed into the back of the van. 

His feelings must have been visible as they all climbed out of the van, because Malon reached over and touched his arm gently.

“Don’t worry,” she said with a small laugh. “They’ll be out of your hair soon enough.”

“Yes, but who knows what havoc we’re about to unleash on these other families,” Time said, gesturing to the other families making their way to the front gate.

“Dad, c’mon we gotta hurry!” Wild shouted as he and Hyrule ran past. 

“Slow down, Wild,” Malon called, a smile in her voice. “We still have to confirm our tickets!”

It didn’t take too terribly long for them to confirm their tickets and make their way inside the gate. Once inside, Time had them gather up around him, having to catch Wild and Wind both by the collars of their shirts to keep them from running off. 

“Okay, so a few rules,” Time said. “First, stay in groups or at least in pairs. No one needs to go off on their own. And make sure that at least one member of your group has a charged phone, so that we can keep tabs on each other. We’ll meet up for lunch on Main Street at noon, so make sure you’re there if you want me to buy you food.”

He met the eyes of all the boys, knowing that lunch would probably be the  _ only _ time they would intentionally be with him, and for the exact reason that he was buying lunch. When Time had received nods of confirmation from each of them, he continued.

“Now, you’ve all picked a partner, right?”

“Yep!” Wild piped up. “Me’n’Rule are together!”

“Four and I are partners,” Legend said. “Mainly because he’s the only sane one out of this lot.”

There were a few shouts of “hey!” but Time tuned those out as he turned to the next pair. “Sky and Warriors? You two are a pair?”

Sky nodded. “Yes sir. We’ve been planning this trip out since you invited us last spring.”

Warriors held up a printed sheet of paper. “We have a full strategy for how to get the most things in within our time limit,” he said. “And we’ve made sure to have a good balance between rides and other attractions so that we don’t overdo anything.”

“Buzzkills,” Wind muttered from where he was next to Warriors. Time turned to him and raised an eyebrow at the fact that Wind and Twilight were the only two remaining, meaning they were going to be paired together. 

“Oh dear,” Malon murmured beside him, obviously coming to the same conclusion. 

There was something not well known about Twilight, and that was that he had a tendency to get  _ horrible  _ motion sickness. Already Time could see Twilight looking a little greener than normal. He met his oldest son’s eyes and Twilight steeled his expression, giving a firm nod. 

Time felt his eye widen at that, but he trusted Twilight to know his own limits so he stayed quiet.

“Okay, well if everyone is set, and knows the rules, then I suppose you’re free to go.”

It took all of thirty seconds for the eight boys to run off, leaving Time and Malon alone.

“They’ll be fine, dear,” Malon said, still laughing slightly.

“Sure, _ they _ will be,” Time said. “But I fear we just released a pack of rabid gremlins upon the Magic Kingdom.”

*** * ***

The Spinning Teacups weren’t necessarily Sky’s favorite ride, but he and Warriors had made a commitment to ride as many of the rides as they possibly could. Doing such meant hitting a lot of small rides as opposed to waiting in the super long lines for the bigger, more popular rides. 

Since they were riding for the ride count and not the actual experience of the teacups, Sky and Warriors sat in their teacup and spun it slowly as it orbited around the others. It was a fun, casual ride that would save their ride stamina for when they truly needed it.

“Sky, Sky look at that teacup,” Warriors said, pointing at one across the ride from them that was spinning around madly. Sky felt sick just watching, and he didn’t even  _ get _ motion sickness. (He couldn’t imagine how Twilight would react to such a sight). 

Before he realized it though, the fast spinning cup orbited next to his and Warriors, and Sky could hear the  _ very familiar _ manic screaming of its occupants. 

It spun away and Sky and Warriors continued to watch as Sky spoke up.

“Was that…?”

Warriors gave a heavy sigh. “Yep.”

Sky snorted a laugh and continued to watch the frantic spinning of Hyrule and Wild’s teacup.

_ The gremlin games had begun. _

*** * ***

Legend was about to commit a murder.

It was a well known fact that “It’s a Small World” was the  _ worst _ ride of the Magic Kingdom.  _ Why _ Red had insisted on riding it, Legend did not know. He also didn’t know why Four’s other parts had agreed to letting him choose to ride it.

“I told you,” Four said (it was Green currently in the influencer position, whatever that meant. They’d explained it to Legend once when he had first met Four, but the most Legend understood was that Four’s left eye changed colors to match whichever one held the most control). “I have to let all the parts choose a ride, otherwise  _ no one _ will be happy.”

“But  _ why _ this one?” Legend asked. “And  _ why  _ on this boat?”

He glared at the backs of the occupants in the front row of the boat. 

“We’re pretending not to know them, remember?”

Legend groaned as he sunk further down into the back seat of his boat, covering his ears with his hands and praying to whatever god or goddess that was listening to please spare him and keep the boat moving. 

He had absolutely zero desire to spend any longer than necessary on this ride with Wild and Hyrule’s horrid off-pitch  _ screaming _ of “It’s a Small World”.

*** * ***

After lunch, Twilight decided he could stand maybe two more rides with Wind before he decided to push the younger off onto Warriors and Sky. That is, until they ran into Wild and Hyrule in the middle of Frontierland. 

Twilight wondered if he was going to have to bump up his time table.

“We were about to go on Splash Mountain,” Hyrule said. “Want to join?”

Okay, Splash Mountain wasn’t bad. It didn’t have any severe turns or loops. Twilight could live with tha...

“Yeah!” Wild said excitedly. “‘Rule is going to manipulate the water as we go down the mountain so that we get extra the splash.”

Wait, what?

“That sounds  _ awesome! _ ” Wind shouted. “C’mon Twilight!”

As the three younger boys dragged him towards the ride, Twilight went ahead and sent a text to Sky and Warriors to have them meet him at the exit of Splash Mountain. 

*** * ***

“Hey ‘Rule, I know we’ve done a lot today, but you know one thing we haven’t done yet?”

“What?”

“Make it up to the roof of the castle.”

“Fuck yes, let’s do it.”

*** * ***

As evening approached, Time and Malon sat comfortably together in front of the walkway to the castle, waiting for the boys to arrive so they could begin the trip home. 

It had been a surprisingly peaceful day, and honestly Time was suspicious. It wasn’t like their group to go to an amusement or theme park and  _ not _ have something go awry (the angry yells of the disappointed crowd at SeaWorld still haunted Time’s dreams. How was he supposed to know that Sky and Twilight would scheme together and cause the animals to go on strike?)

With the way that they had been acting on the ride here, Time had been  _ sure _ that Wild and Hyrule would cause some sort of commotion, but other than very explicit complaints from Legend and Four, he had seen no sort of mischief from the two boys.

“Dear, do you see that?” 

Malon’s voice pulled Time from his thoughts as he turned to where his wife was pointing to the towers of the castle.

“It looks like… two people jumping from tower to tower?” he said slowly, the feeling of dread from earlier that morning starting to build again. 

Malon turned to look at him. “Link,” she said. “You don’t think…”

“Mom! Dad!” They both turned to see Twilight and Legend running towards them, the rest of their friends close behind. 

“Wild and Hyrule are climbing the castle,” Twilight said, pointing at the two figures who had now made it almost completely to the top.

“ _ Of course they are _ ,” Time muttered, turning his back on the castle and facing the rest of the group. “Well, let’s hope they won’t get caught. It would be a shame to get kicked out of  _ another _ amusement park.”

Right as he said that, there was a loud explosion as a series of fireworks shot off into the sky from the castle tower.

Time paused for a moment at the sound, before hanging his head with a sigh. 

“I’ll go make sure the van is ready to leave.”


	17. Camping Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wild is a very curious and inquisitive child, and when he finally gets a chance to go camping overnight without his family, he takes full advantage of it, making a lifelong friend along the way. Someone should have known better than to let these two children wander off together.

Link bounced up and down in place while his dad grabbed his backpack from the back of the car. As a Beaver Scout, they had only been allowed to camp indoors, but now that he'd been bumped up to a Cub Scout, he was going to go camping overnight. It was only going to be one night, but he was still excited about it. 

"Alright Link, do you remember what I told you?" Time asked as he handed the bag to Link.

"Always stay with someone, don't go too far from camp, and try to listen to what the Scout leader says." Link recited from memory. His father had only been drilling it into his head for the past week.

"That's right, and make sure to keep your knife on you, you never know when you'll need it." Link nodded before running off to the gathering point where a bunch of other children were already waiting.

Most of the children were carrying bags similar to Link's, no doubt filled with the camping gear the leaders had suggested. The children were clustered in groups, talking to each other about various things, but Link had too much energy to sit still. 

He walked around the group, looking at the forest around them, but made sure to stay close. When he reached a wooden fence of some kind, he climbed on top of it, and balanced himself on it, walking back and forth across it. It was like walking a tightrope in a circus. 

"Whatcha doing?" Link let out a yelp as someone popped up beside him, and he fell off the fence, right onto his back. He grumbled as he sat up, rubbing his back, it hadn't been a long fall, but he fell right into the bed of gravel, so it still stung.

Using the fence, he pulled himself back to his feet and glared at the boy who had surprised him. He was slightly shorter than him, with brown hair and funny colored eyes. Link had never seen anyone have eyes that were both two different colors before. He was wearing a green tunic over a light brown shirt, brown pants, and boots. His left ear had been pierced on the outer rim, a clear sign that he had some kind of power.

"I was having fun walking on the fence." Link growled at the other boy.

"But if you're not careful you can fall and hurt yourself." The boy grinned back at him.

  
Link was about to snap back at him when one of the leaders called out for everyone to gather around. The two of them raced over to rejoin the others, and Link started bouncing up and down again, never able to stay still for long. 

"Alright everyone, now I know this is your first time camping, and you're all excited but we have a few rules to go over." Link tried to pay attention but grew bored after a few seconds and watched as a pair of birds circled over the tree line, bobbing and weaving together. He wondered if they were fighting or maybe they were trying to court each other.

Link tuned back in time to catch the very end of the speech and wondered if he'd missed anything important before shrugging it off.

"Now when I call your name, I want you to step forward, and then I will call out who your buddy is. Now it's very important to remember that you and your buddy will have to stay together for the whole trip."

Link watched as children were called together in pairs, boys with boys and girls with girls. The pairs went to another Scout leader, and the group Link was with slowly dwindled down until it was just him and the boy who had made him fall off the fence.

"And the last two are Link and...Link? Okay, very funny guys, who messed with my attendance sheet?" The leader looked around as if hoping someone would answer him. When no one said anything he turned back to the boy. "So which one of you is Link?"

"I am." They both answered in almost perfect unison before looking at each other in surprise.

"Your name is Link?" Link asked as he looked at the brunet in excitement. Twilight and dad had the same name as him, but he didn't know other people could have the same name.

"Uh-huh, it's my dad's name too, and my grandpa's, they said it's a family name." The boy puffed his chest out in pride.

"So is mine, my mom said it's a Hero name and she wanted it to make me strong." Link couldn't help but giggle, what were the chances he'd find another Link?

"Well we can't just call both of you Link, that would get everyone confused. How about you two come up with a nickname and we can call you that." The leader offered, and Link nodded eagerly, dad and Twilight went by nicknames, he was finally going to come up with his own.

Link looked around, trying to find a cool animal or plant he could pick for his nickname, maybe something like Crow, or Reed.

"No way, you have a merit badge too?" Link looked back at the boy, who was pointing at the single pin on his sash.

"Yup, it's for Wilderness Survival, what about you?" He looked at the other's but he didn't recognize the name of the badge. It looked like three triangles paired together sitting between a pair of wings on a book.

"It's Hyrule Historian, I like reading the stories about all the old Heroes of legend." The other chirped while looking quite proud of himself.

"Hmm, maybe your nickname could be Hyrule then, cause that's the first badge you got, which means you know a lot about it." Link offered, and the boy thought about it for a moment before speaking up again.

"Okay, then you can be Wild, cause you know about the wild." Link, Wild, grinned at that, he liked the name, something about it seemed just right.

"Alright boys, don't forget your nicknames, that's what we're going to call you from now on, just so we don't mix you up. Now let's go join the others so we can get this trip started." Both boys followed the leader eagerly, ready to jump right into camping.

As they set out for their campgrounds, the boys and girls split. They weren't going to be camping in the same area apparently. Wild looked around, trying to memorize certain landmarks as they walked, but quickly forgot about them as he found another one.

They came to a small clearing where several unpitched tents were lying on the ground. Some of the kids started murmuring to each other in confusion, but Wild bounced around excitedly. He had been wanting to learn how to pitch a tent for weeks now. It was one of the requirements for the camping badge, and that was the next merit badge he was making his way towards.

"Alright boys, before we can start any of our activities we have to get these tents set up. Find a tent, and you and your buddy get to work on setting it up. If you need any help, you can ask any of us." The leader gestured to himself and the other teen with him.

Wild grabbed Hyrule's hand as he rushed forward, heading for the tent at the edge of the clearing furthest away from the others. He put his bag down and instantly started working on clearing any debris in the area while Hyrule unfolded the ground cloth and the tent, laying out the poles so they wouldn't lose any of them. Hyrule carefully pushed the rods through the tent while Wild set up the ground cloth, and once it was up, Wild used a mallet to hammer the stakes into the ground, making sure it stayed up.

The whole process took only a few minutes, and when they were finished, they took a step back to admire it. It looked almost as good as the tent the Scout Leaders had set up for themselves. Most of the kids were still trying to figure out how to get everything set up, and Wild felt proud that they had been the first.

After they moved their stuff into the tent and set up their sleeping bags, the scout leaders came to check it for them.

"Great job guys, you got it right on the first try. Looks like someone's trying to get their camping badge aren't they?" When they both nodded happily the leader couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, we have to wait for the rest of the group to set up their tents, but the two of you can relax while you wait for them."

Wild plopped down onto his sleeping bag as Hyrule dug around in his bag looking for something.

"So do you have any brothers or sisters?" Wild asked as he pulled out the little handbook he had about the different badges and how to earn them.

"Yeah, I have two sisters, they're both the same age, and they're older than me. What about you?" Hyrule pulled out a sketchbook and flipped through the pages.

"I have an older brother, his name's also Link, but we just call him Twilight."

"Wow, you really do have a lot of Links in your family, but mine has way more." Hyrule giggled as he pulled colored pencils out of his bag. "There's so many in my family, that we all have different middle names, and we share them."

"So you have your dad's middle name?"

"Uh-huh, and my grandpa's, and my great grandpa's, and my great great grandpa's. Do you want to hear all of them?" Hyrule set his pencils down, as if bracing himself for something big.

"Heck yeah, I don't have any middle names." Wild set his own book down to watch Hyrule.

Hyrule closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before starting. "Link Abaddon Barnabus Cornelius Dmitrius Ernesto-"

Wild started to zone out after the fifth middle name. That seemed like way too many middle names for one person. He couldn't understand why Hyrule would try to remember that many middle names. He could faintly make out that Hyrule stumbled over one or two of the names. One stuck out over the others, and drew Wild's attention back to Hyrule.

"- Window X-Xerxs, Xerces, Xerxes." Hyrule scrunched his nose as he stumbled over yet another name.

"Did you just say Window?" Wild couldn't help but interrupt him. That had to be the craziest name he'd ever heard.

"Yeah, that one's one of my favorites." Hyrule snickered as he stopped reciting the name. His eyes flew open and he let out a whine. "Aww, but now I have to start all over."

Wild pretended to be paying attention as Hyrule started listing his middle names again. He didn't catch any of the middle names this time around, though Hyrule did stumble less. Wild's attention was drawn back to Hyrule as he cut off in the middle of the sentence. Hyrule was looking down at his lap in concentration.

"That's all I can remember, I got to 30 this time around. That's three more than last time." Hyrule looked back up with a proud smile. "So what about you, what's your family like?"

"It's me, Twilight, mom and dad. I used to have a different mom, but I don't remember a lot about her. I know she hurt a lot of people, and she tried to hurt me, but she got caught and they locked her up, and Dad took me in. I tried to get Twi to come to Boy Scouts with me, but he plays sports, and he always has to go to these stupid games, so he can't go to the meetings." Wild grumbled as he flipped through the pages, trying to find the camping section.

"I tried sports once when I was little, but mom says it's better to do something like Scouts, cause we learn life lessons, and we can use this to survive if we ever got stranded. Dad just said sports were for people who couldn't express themselves the right way." Hyrule muttered as he started to sketch something on a blank page. Wild couldn't help but snort, Twi would be so mad if he heard that.

"Mom tried to put me in baseball once, but I kept getting distracted by flowers and trying to chase butterflies. That was the only time I ever participated in a sport." Wild smiled as he read through his book.

"Did your team at least end up winning anything?"

"All I know is I got a free hot dog and soda at the end of the game, I didn't care about the game at all." Wild couldn't hold back a giggle, remembering how disappointed Twilight had looked.

As the scout leader called everyone to gather, Wild carefully put his handbook back in his bag before scrambling out the door, Hyrule right on his heels. The rest of the tents had been set up, but only a few of them looked stable, while more than half looked like they were seconds away from caving in on themselves. Nonetheless, all the other kids looked proud at having set up a tent on their own. 

"Alright everyone, now that we've finished setting up, we're going to head over to the cooking area, and we'll be learning how to cook using the camping grill." Wild grinned at that, he was always ready to learn when it came to cooking. Hyrule, on the other hand, looked nervous as they followed the leaders along another path.

The rest of the day proved very eventful. They went on a hike, took photos, and even got to go swimming in a nearby lake for almost an hour. Hyrule had no problem keeping up with Wild's boundless energy but wasn't a big fan of swimming. While Wild was swimming around, happy as a duck, Hyrule only went in so the water could reach his waist. 

As the sun set, the leaders started showing the boys how to set up a proper campfire, and Wild leaned in eagerly, it was yet another step towards the camping badge after all. He fired off several questions, about the best kind of wood, what to set first, what they could use if they didn't have a match. The leaders didn't seem to mind though, only chuckling at Wild's enthusiasm.

The group of boys sat around the crackling fire, looking to the leaders as they started to roast marshmallows. One of them started telling a scary story, but Wild was more focused on Hyrule, who's marshmallow kept sinking closer and closer to the campfire. 

Hyrule jumped out of his seat with a yelp as the marshmallow caught on fire. The other boys laughed as he struggled to blow the fire out, but it only seemed to flare brighter. Wild watched in amazement as a second later, the fire blinked out of existence. Hyrule sat back down with a pout, his marshmallow burnt beyond recognition, but Wild quickly handed him an extra from his bag. The brunet whispered thanks before spearing the new marshmallow, setting it over the fire again, but keeping a closer eye on it this time.

Almost an hour later, with their stomachs full of sugar and their eyelids heavy, all of the boys headed for their tents. Hyrule nestled into his sleeping bag, ready to fall asleep. Wild, on the other hand, sat on top of his, using a flashlight to flip through his handbook. Hyrule dozed lightly, but after a few minutes, Wild shook him awake, he blinked at the other owlishly, waiting for an explanation.

"I have to go to the bathroom, and the leaders said we have to stick with our buddies." Wild squirmed where he was sitting. Hyrule groaned as he sat up and pushed himself out of his sleeping bag.

They stumbled out of the tent and Wild pulled him towards the treeline.

"The bathrooms are over that way," Hyrule complained as he pointed to the building, trying to dig his heels in.

"Yeah, but that's so far away, I can just go right here," Wild growled as he pulled the smaller boy along with him. Hyrule stopped trying to complain, it would be faster to just let Wild do it his way. He yawned and rubbed his eyes sleepily as Wild dragged him through the woods.

After a minute of walking, Wild finally came to stop, and Hyrule looked away as Wild took care of his business. He wandered around, looking at different kinds of plants and trees, trying to match them to the kinds he'd seen in his handbook. 

He gasped as he noticed a beautiful flower and ran over to it, crouching down to get a better look at it. It was small, white and blue, with five petals, and shaped like a star. He couldn't remember the name of it off the top of his head, but he knew it only grew in the wild and was considered really rare. 

"Woah, is that a Silent Princess?" Hyrule glanced back to see Wild pointing at an identical flower only a few feet away. Hyrule glanced over and saw a few scattered across the forest floor. His fingers twitched, wanting his sketchbook so he could try and draw the flowers.

I didn't know they grew around here." Hyrule mumbled as he moved over to the next flower. It looked similar to the one he just left, but the blue in this one was more prominent, only the underside the petals a bright white. He moved to the next one, where it was almost entirely white, with a splash of blue on one petal. With each one he looked at, the petals were never the same pattern.

Wild was tempted to pluck one and take it home to his mom, but he knew they were a protected species. If he did that he could get in a lot of trouble, and not just with his mom and dad. He settled on taking pictures of the flowers, he could should Twilight just what he was missing by choosing his stupid sports.

When they reached a small cluster of the flowers, Hyrule couldn't hold back a big yawn. He rubbed his eyes as he looked back to Wild, who looked almost as tired as he felt.

"Let's go back now, I'm tired." Wild nodded in agreement, he started to walk back, but looked around in confusion, before changing direction and heading in another direction. He repeated the process a few times before looking back at Hyrule.

"I don't know which way we came from, do you?" Wild looked confused and mildly concerned. Hyrule shook his head, he had gotten turned around while looking at the flowers, he had been really hoping that Wild had remembered the way back.

They tried to follow the flowers they had been looking at, but there were so many scattered around the forest, they couldn't find the exact same ones they had looked at. Hyrule whined as he tried to think of a way back to camp, but kept coming up short.

"Well, if we don't know the way back to camp, it's better if we just stay here until someone comes to find us. When they see we're not in our tent in the morning, they'll come looking for us." Wild offered, pulling from his wilderness survival training.

"But what if they don't? What if they don't come looking for us?" Hyrule asked, growing more scared by the second.

"Then we find our way back on our own. But we have to wait till morning for them to look for us. Let's try to sleep now." Hyrule nodded and they started to clear a small area for them to lie down. It wasn't nearly as comfy as their tent or their sleeping bags, but it would have to do. Despite the hard ground, Hyrule was out like a light

Morning found both boys pacing back and forth uneasily. Wild's stomach gave an angry growl as he huffed and kicked at a tree. Someone should have noticed they were gone by now, why didn't they hear or see anybody? As he could hear Hyrule's stomach rumble he turned to the other with determination.

"I'm going to go find something to eat."

"But you said it'll be easier for them to find us if we wait here." Hyrule murmured, but he couldn't ignore his growling stomach.

"Yeah, but who knows how long it will take? It could be hours. I'm hungry now, so if you want, you can wait here, and I'll go find us something to eat."

Hyrule thought about it for a second but shook his head. He was just as hungry as Wild, and if Wild went too far, they could get separated. That wouldn't help either of them.

"Alright, I'll show you what we're looking for, come on." Wild led him into the forest, away from the small clearing, and unbeknownst to either of them, in the completely opposite direction of the camp.

It didn't take long for Wild to find a berry bush, and after inspecting it for a minute, took a few berries off the bush and ate them. Hyrule took that as a sign that they were safe and started to pick them off the bushes.

Wild foraged around a bit more and found a small grove of apple trees. There weren't any close enough to the ground for them to easily pluck, but there was a lot in the higher branches. As Hyrule was busy picking the berries from the bushes, Wild climbed into the branches of the trees and picked the biggest and healthiest looking apples.

He jumped down from the branches and when Hyrule handed him a handful of berries, he handed him two of the apples he'd picked. They sat down and quietly ate the fruit, it wasn't what they were used to, but it was definitely better than sitting around and starving. When they were finished, Wild dug a small hole and they buried their apple cores.

"Since we already left the spot we were supposed to wait, it might be easier if we just try to find our way back on our own."

"But we don't know where to even start looking."

"It's better than just sitting around and waiting for someone to come to rescue us. At least this way, we can find food and water, so if we're stuck out here we can survive." Wild tried not to snap at the other. His training said to wait for rescue, but his instincts said to find resources, and he always tried to listen to his instincts.

"So what's the first thing we should do?" Hyrule asked. He had to trust that Wild knew what he was doing, he was the one with the merit badge for survival after all. 

"Finding a source of water, if we can get to water, we'll be alright for several weeks. From there we find shelter, and then a source of food. Then we can worry about making a signal for others to find us." Wild said as if reciting it from a book.

"Well, there was the lake we went swimming in yesterday. If we can find that, it's a good water source, and it probably has a lot of fish in it, so that takes care of food."

"That's perfect. Now we just have to figure out where it is." Wild clapped happily, excited to put all of his training to the test.

As Wild looked at animal tracks, Hyrule wandered around the area, making sure Wild was in his line of sight. He stopped to listen to the wind rustling through the trees, the birds calling out to each other, and was that the sound of running water? He tilted his head slightly to try to hear better, and sure enough, he could make out the faint sound of water.

"Wild, Wild, I can hear water coming from that direction!" Hyrule ran back to the other boy, bouncing up and down excitedly while pointing in the general direction of the noise.

"Really? Awesome, it probably leads into the lake, so if we find it we can follow it. Lead the way!"

The two boys walked through the woods, Hyrule leading the way. They would pause every few seconds to listen for the water and make sure they were heading the right. In only a few minutes, the faint sound of running water escalated to water crashing over rocks. The river looked at least half a mile wide, and Wild could tell that the rapids would sweep them away if they even tried to step into it.

"Okay, we found the water, can we fish here?" Hyrule asked as he sat on a rock next to the water. He was ready to take a break.

"No, if we even tried the rapids would be too strong to catch anything. It's good for water, but we have to get to the lake if we want to try fishing. Let's follow the tide, and we should get there soon, come on."

"Can't we stay here for a minute? I'm tired." Hyrule whined as watched Wild walk around.

"Yeah, I guess it is around lunchtime. Stay here, get some water, and I'll see if there's anything around here for us to eat."

After a quick meal of wild berries and onions that Wild had found, they went back to following the river downstream. 

"So you already started showing signs of your power that's so cool. My older brother Twi keeps talking about how he can't wait for his to show up, but dad says we just have to be patient. He said he didn't get his powers until he was 12."

"Mom and dad always wanted me to try using my powers. Mom says my grandpa discovered his powers when he was six, and I finally got mine last month."

"So what is it? Can you fly? Do you have super strength? Can you fire lasers from your eyes?" Wild asked excitedly, he hadn't seen anyone but an adult use their powers, especially someone his age.

"I can control fire, but I'm not good at it yet. Sometimes I can't control it though, like last night with the marshmallows. I was trying to put the fire out and it only got worse." Hyrule looked dejected, but Wild knew how to flip that.

"That's true, but you did put it out, even though it was higher and hotter than it was before. That's just as cool." Wild playfully punched the other in the arm, and Hyrule couldn't but grin.

"Well, when you put it that way."

"Mom and dad are already talking about signing me up for classes with mentors. They said if I start practicing now, I'll be a lot stronger when I get to high school." Hyrule added.

"Dad says that powers can be unpredictable and you just have to roll with them. He can't practice his power, so he just rolls with the punches."

"Oh we're here, we're here! Look Wild, it's the lake!" Hyrule grinned happily, and Wild let out a whoop as he grabbed Hyrule's arm and tried to drag him into the water. Hyrule dug his heels in though and stopped Wild from dragging them both into the water. 

"You're no fun, we could go swimming." Wild let him go and sat down with a pout.

"But you said when we found water, the next thing we should do is find shelter. And this is the only clothes we have right now, so we can't get them wet."

"Actually, it's water, food, then shelter, but since there might be fish, we can just go straight to shelter. Now come on, let's look for an overhang or even an abandoned cave." Wild corrected Hyrule, since they were out here, he could teach Hyrule a few things about Wilderness Survival.

They were lucky enough to find an unused cave. It looked like it could have been an old wolf den, but there weren't any recent tracks to say there was anything living in it. And it was close enough to the lake that they could make it out on the tree line. That lessened the chance of either of them getting lost, and just to make sure, Wild marked the trees for an easy path.

Now that two of their necessities were taken care of, they headed back to the lake. Wild showed Hyrule how to fashion a fishhook out of a soda can tab he had sitting in the bottom of his pocket. Using a rock, he broke part of it off, then sharpened it to a point, and tied a rope to the part that was unbroken.

"And now, we just stick a worm or a fly on the end of it, and we throw the hook out into the water. If we're lucky we can catch a fish in an hour." Wild threw the line out as far as the rope would go and went to sit on a nearby rock.

"An hour? That'll take way too long, isn't there a faster way?"

"Not unless we go out and catch it with our own hands. Fishing takes a lot of patience, now come sit down, if you want we can try to make even more fish hooks. I've always wanted to try to make one out of a stick." Wild patted the spot next to him.

"Maybe I can gather some leaves and sticks so we can set up a campfire to cook the fish."

"That works too, try to find old leaves and sticks, if they're too green they won't burn as well and don't go too far from the lake."

Two hours later, Wild had caught three fish, and Hyrule had set up a decent-sized campfire. Hyrule had gotten the fire started on his third try, and Wild was proud of him. It looked like it took a lot of concentration, and he was relieved it worked at all. As the sun set, the two of them dug happily into the fish they had caught and cooked together, and they settled in for the night.

Wild was sure they had only been in the woods for four days, but to him, it felt like a lifetime. He honestly enjoyed every second of it. He had taught Hyrule how to make a fishing rod and how to swim, and Hyrule had taught him how to read stars and the best way to make a campfire. They had even managed to make a snare on their own. It wasn't very good and they had only managed to catch two or three squirrels, but it was something they got to learn about together. 

On their fifth day in the wilderness, Wild was woken up by a scream from Hyrule. He jumped up, hand already flying to the Swiss army knife he always kept in his pocket. He paused as he saw that Hyrule was staring at a massive wolf with golden fur that was sitting at the entrance of their den.

Wild could see why Hyrule would be terrified of the wolf. It was easily as big as they were and its body was covered in scars, including one over its eye that made it all the more intimidating. It's one good eye was trained on them, and Wild could tell it was more annoyed than it was angry. Wild wriggled past Hyrule, ignoring his protests as he burst out of the den and tackled the wolf.

"Dad, you found us!" Wild cheered as he snuggled into the wolf's fur, ignoring the annoyed huff that it gave.

"Your dad is a wolf?" Hyrule asked in astonishment as he crawled out of the den, moving over to Wild and the wolf. It was only as he got closer that he noticed that the wolf had an earring in its right ear, a sign that he was a full-fledged super.

"Yeah, he can change into a wolf whenever he wants." Wild let out a yelp as the wolf shifted underneath him and he was suddenly clutching the leg of his very human father.

"Alright boys, I think you've been out here long enough, it's time to get you back home." Time said as he grabbed on to the back of Wild's shirt, knowing he was the most likely to wander off. He started to lead Wild back to the checkpoint that had been sent up. Hyrule followed closely behind him

"But daaaaad, we were going to try to catch a rabbit today." Wild whined as he pulled against the grip on his shirt.

"Yeah daaaaaad, Wild was going to teach me how to go underwater, and we were going to try and catch fish with our hands," Hyrule added as he weaved around them, not sure what to do.

"This isn't the time for jokes boys. You've both been missing for five days, your parents have been worried sick about you Link. We were all worried that the both of you had been hurt and couldn't find your way back."

"But we weren't hurt dad, we just got lost, and I know how to find food and water out here, so you didn't have to worry about us." Wild pouted as he stopped fighting. He knew his dad was worried, but it was ruining the fun he and Hyrule had been having.

"I know you have training for the surviving Link, but there's a difference between doing it with the scouts and doing it in real life. You're lucky it's the middle of summer and you didn't have to worry about it getting too cold."

"I can make fire., it would keep us warm" Hyrule mumbled as he looked at the ground. He and Wild had just been having fun, he hadn't meant to make his parents super worried about him.

"That's not the point you two, you can't wander away from the rest of the group like that. You have to stay with your group."

Wild and Hyrule whined and complained the entire way to the checkpoint. Once they reached it, a message was sent out to recall the rest of the rescue party. A paramedic checked the boys over while they waited for Hyrule's parents. Despite being in the wild for nearly a week the boys were in almost perfect health. The only damage was scratches and bruises they got while exploring.

They were escorted back to the camping area, and when Hyrule's parents saw him they ran to him and held him while crying. Hyrule grumbled as he endured it, and tried to reassure them he was okay, and that he wasn't hurt at all.

Malon and Twilight soon joined them and Wild got another earful from his mother. He pouted as he looked at Hyrule, who was going through the same thing with his own parents. With both boys given the green light to go home, the parents got ready to take them home. Before they left, Wild managed to sneak his way over to Hyrule.

"I know we got in trouble for it, but I had a lot of fun."

"Me too, we should try it again next camping trip." Wild giggled, trying to keep his voice low enough that no one else could overhear them.

"That would be awesome, we could bring stuff next time so we can have more fun and try to catch something other than fish." Hyrule bounced up and down, already excited at the prospect of running off and getting lost again.

"Let's do it, here's my house phone number, we can talk about our plans before the trip." Wild handed Hyrule a paper with his number before Hyrule's parents pulled him away.

"See you next Scout meeting Wild!" Hyrule called out as he headed to his parents' car.

"Bye Hyrule!" Wild waved as he followed his own parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, this is one of the first stories that was written for this AU, and it's one I'm still very happy about. I don't actually know anything about Boy Scouts, so if there's anything that I messed up, please feel free to tell me. Also if you couldn't tell, at this point Wild has ADHD, and a lot of his behavior is based on what I was like as a young child. If anyone is curious, Hyrule has 42 middle names, and yes, we have all of them planned out. Thank you guys so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed these two being absolute gremlins.


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